DISCOURSES 


INAUGURATION 


REV.  WILLIAM  HENRY^REEN, 


PROFESSOR  OF  BIBLICAL  AND  ORIENTAL  LI  MATURE 


THE   THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARS   AT   PRINCETON,    N.  J. 


DELIVERED  AT  PRINCETON,  SEPTEMBER  30,  1851, 


BEFORE  THE  DIRECTORS  OF  THE  SEMINARY. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
C.    SHERMAN,    PRINTER. 

1851. 


DISCOURSES 


INAUGURATION 

OF  THE 

REV.  WILLIAM  HENRY  GREEN, 

AS  PROFESSOR  OF  BIBLICAL  AND  ORIENTAL  LITERATURE  IN  THE 
THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  AT  PRINCETON,   N.   J. 

DELIVERED  AT  PRINCETON,  SEPTEMBER  30,  1851, 

BEFORE  THE  DIRECTORS  OF  THE  SEMINARY. 


THE  CHARGE; 

BY  THE  REV.   SAMUEL  BEACH  JONES,  D.D.,   OF  BRIDGETON,  N.   J. 


II. 

THE  INAUGURAL  DISCOURSE. 

PUBLISHED  BY  REQUEST  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

C.    SHERMAN,    PRINTER. 

1851. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/datinauOOgree 


A  CHARGE 
TO     THE    PROFESSOR. 


REV.  SAMUEL  BEACH  JONES,  D.D., 

PASTOR  OF  THE  FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  BRIDGETON,  N.  J. 


CHARGE. 


It  has  devolved  upon  me,  in  the  behalf  of  the 
Directors  of  this  Seminary,  to  address  to  you  the 
"charge"  deemed  appropriate  to  this  occasion.  To 
us,  not  less  than  to  yourself,  the  assumption  of  your 
present  office  is  a  matter  of  solemn  and  sacred  interest. 
Our  whole  Church,  indeed,  regards  with  wise  concern 
the  induction  of  a  new  incumbent  into  the  office  of 
Professor  in  her  oldest  and  most  influential  Theological 
School.  But  our  interest  is  something  more  than  what 
is  common  to  the  Church  at  large.  With  scarce  an 
exception,  the  clerical  members  of  this  Board  sustain 
to  this  institution  a  relationship  of  special  interest, 
aside  from  that  of  official  supervision.  Among  us  are 
still  found  some  of  the  fathers,  through  whose  counsels, 
prayers,  and  labours,  this  Seminary  was  planted  and 
reared  into  vigorous  life ;  while  most  of  us  have  been 
permitted  to  sit  under  its  shade,  and  partake  of  its 
invaluable  fruit.  Our  interest  in  this  Seminary,  there- 
fore, is  the  interest  of  parents  and  children ;  the  fond 


b  CHARGE. 

pride  and  anxious  solicitude  of  parental  love,  or  the 
affectionate  veneration  of  filial  gratitude. 

This  interest,  naturally  inspired  by  past  and  present 
relationships,  is  enhanced  by  the  conviction  that  at  no 
former  period  of  its  history  has  our  Seminary  occupied 
a  position  of  such  importance  to  the  Church.  Upon 
the  inauguration  of  its  earliest  officers,  it  was  as  yet 
problematical  whether  such  a  school  was  competent 
to  realize  the  anticipations  of  its  sanguine  friends ; 
whether  the  Church,  which  founded,  would  continue 
to  afford  to  it  her  confidence  and  love ;  whether  the 
enterprise  would  meet  the  approval  of  the  Head  of  the 
Church ;  or  whether  its  influence  upon  the  various 
interests  of  the  Church  was  destined  to  be  wide-spread 
and  enduring.  The  history  of  forty  years  has  solved 
these  questions,  in  a  way  which  claims  the  devout 
gratitude  of  our  Church. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  in  what  way  the  King  of 
Zion  could  have  attested  his  complacent  regard  for 
this  institution  more  unequivocally  than  He  has  done. 
The  character  of  those  who  here  have  exercised  office, 
the  rare  longevity  to  which  the  services  of  its  original 
teachers  have  been  protracted,  the  remarkable  har- 
mony of  sentiment  and  feeling,  and  the  concert  of 
action,  which  have  marked  the  labours  of  all  its 
instructors,  the  happy  union  of  learning  with  sober 
wisdom  and  a  sound  faith,  and,  above  all,  the  spirit  of 
evangelic  piety  which  has  reigned  here,  evince,  with 


CHARGE.  t 

delightful  clearness,  the  love  of  Christ  for  this  institu- 
tion and  for  the  Church  which  dedicated  it  to  his 
glory. 

Scarcely  less  evident  is  the  place  which  this  Semi- 
nary holds  in  the  affections  of  the  Church.  The  con- 
viction that  this  school  has  fulfilled  the  high  ends  for 
which  it  was  founded,  has  never  been  better  esta- 
blished, nor  more  pervading,  than  at  this  hour. 
Never  was  the  Church  more  sensible  of  the  services  it 
has  rendered  her;  and  never  has  she  reposed  more 
confidence  in  those  to  whom  she  has  entrusted  its 
management.  Although  similar  schools  have  been 
reared  within  her  pale,  the  supposition  that  other 
seminaries  were  flourishing  at  the  expense  of  that  at 
Princeton,  or  that  in  any  way  its  power  for  good  was 
impaired,  would  excite  painful  solicitude  throughout 
all  her  borders. 

To  this  assurance  of  the  place  which  our  Seminary 
holds  in  the  favour  of  Christ,  and  of  that  branch  of 
the  Church  to  which  it  specially  belongs,  is  added  our 
knowledge  of  the  prominence  which  it  has  assumed 
before  the  Church  at  large.  Far  beyond  the  limits  of 
our  own  denomination  and  our  own  country,  Princeton 
Semhiary  has  secured  an  enviable  reputation.  The 
adherents  of  a  sound  and  complete  Scriptural  creed 
look  with  hope  and  confidence  to  this  school,  as  the 
faithful  and  accomplished  teacher  of  the  doctrines  of 
grace ;  while  the  numerous  enemies  of  the  truth  have 


8  CHARGE. 

learned  to  dread  it,  as  their  most  formidable  adver- 
sary. 

These  feelings  towards  our  Seminary,  and  these 
convictions  of  its  importance  to  the  highest  interests 
of  Christ's  cause,  render  the  services  of  to-day  much 
more  than  a  mere  ceremonial. 

In  charging  you  to  "  take  heed  to  thyself  and  to 
thy  doctrine,"  we  feel  that  none  but  the  Divine  Head 
of  the  Church  can  estimate  the  consequences  which 
must  ensue  upon  the  accession  of  a  new  member  to 
the  corps  of  instructors  in  this  school,  and  that  member 
called  to  fill  a  department  of  increasing  interest  and 
importance  to  the  Church.  That  you  have  felt  the 
responsibilit}T  of  becoming  a  teacher  to  the  future 
teachers  of  the  Church,  and  especially  of  teacher  in 
this  school  of  teachers;  that,  in  contemplating  the 
magnitude  of  your  work,  you  have  considered  its 
manifold  difficulties  as  well  as  its  pleasures, — we  doubt 
not.  In  the  admonitions,  cautions,  and  exhortations 
addressed  to  you,  we  by  no  means  imply  that  now, 
for  the  first  time,  your  thoughts  will  have  been  directed 
to  these  considerations.  It  is  possible  that  you  may 
anxiously  have  revolved  every  topic  which  I  shall 
present  Yet  we  trust  that  the  occasion  will  serve  to 
invest  with  increased  weight  and  interest  what  may 
lack  the  advantage  of  originality. 

The  counsels  I  now  offer  to  you  are  suggested  by  a 
view  of  yov/r  <>iji<-<  oonricU  red  in  itself;  in  ito  relation  to 


CHARGE.  '    9 

the  present  age;  and  in  its  bearings  upon  the  interests  of 
this  Seminary,  and  of  the  Church  to  v:hich  it  specially 
belongs. 

It  cannot  be  too  urgently  pressed  upon  your  con- 
sideration, that  the  Church  is  what  her  authorized 
teachers  are ;  and  her  teachers  are,  chiefly,  what  their 
theological  training  makes  them.  Had  the  teachers 
of  the  Alexandrian  school  adhered  to  the  simplicity 
and  purity  of  the  Gospel,  instead  of  forcing  an  incon- 
gruous alliance  between  divine  truth  and  Pagan 
sophistries,  the  early  Church  would  have  been  spared 
many  of  its  distractions  and  corruptions.  How  limited 
would  be  the  range  of  Socinian  nationalism  and 
Popish  infatuation,  if  the  theological  schools  of  Geneva, 
Germany,  Holland,  and  England,  were  under  the 
tuition  of  men  like  Calvin,  and  Turrettine,  and  Luther, 
and  Lampe,  and  Owen ! 

The  power  and  value  of  a  sound  training  have  been 
signally  exemplified  in  the  recent  history  of  our  own 
Church.  Had  other  doctrines  and  another  spirit  than 
those  which  have  prevailed  in  this  Seminary,  been 
permitted  to  mould  our  ministry  for  the  last  forty 
years,  under  what  auspices  would  our  Church  now  be 
placed  ?  and  where  would  be,  or  what  would  be,  those 
institutions  by  which  she  is  now  prosecuting  her  divine 
work  with  so  much  success  ?  To  what  single  agency, 
so  much  as  to  the  wholesome  influence  exerted  here, 
does  the  Presbyterian  Church  owe  her  present  condi- 


10  CHARGE. 

tion? — her  soundness  in  doctrine,  her  harmony  of 
sentiment,  her  compactness  of  organization,  and  her 
efficient  machinery  for  accomplishing  her  appropriate 
work?  On  all  the  great  questions  of  doctrine  and 
polity  which  have  agitated  the  Church  itself,  and  upon 
those  exciting  topics  which  have  convulsed  the  country 
and  rent  in  twain  more  than  one  branch  of  the  Church, 
the  pupils  of  this  school  have  proved  the  potency  of 
the  conservative  influence  here  exerted  over  their 
minds.  Without  overlooking  other  influences,  or  dis- 
paraging other  instruments,  we  cannot  but  feel  that 
this  Seminary  has  done  for  the  Church  what  our 
national  Military  Academy  has  done  for  our  country ; 
it  has  trained  the  men  whose  services  were  most 
effective  in  securing  victory  and  peace. 

What,  in  these  respects,  has  been,  will  be.  If  the 
principles  you  inculcate  be  those  of  truth  and  sober- 
ness,— if  your  spirit  be  the  spirit  of  evangelical 
"  power,  and  love,  and  a  sound  mind," — your  scholars 
will  imbibe  and  diffuse  them  through  the  Church.  If, 
on  the  contrary,  your  instructions  or  your  spirit  be 
alien  from  those  which  have  hitherto  held  the  ascen- 
dency in  our  Seminary,  the  Church  cannot  but  catch 
the  infection. 

You  are  aware  how  prevalent  is  the  sentiment  that 
scholastic  occupations,  such  as  yours  will  be,  tend  to 
(jiiench  the  fervour  of  piety,  and  to  leave  a  teachers 
mind  cold,  dry,  and  spiritless.     Too  many  examples 


CHARGE.  11 

seem  to  give  countenance  to  this  opinion ;  and  one  in 
your  situation,  so  much  of  whose  labour  must  neces- 
sarily be  intellectual,  and — what  is  more — intellectual 
conflict  with  pestilent  error,  has  need  to  keep  his 
heart  with  anxious  diligence.  There  is  danger,  preat 
danger,  that  the  heart  lose  its  unction,  while  the  head 
is  taxed  with  such  toil.  There  is  danger  that  the 
theoretical  engross  the  place  which  belongs  of  right  to 
the  practical ;  and  thus  that,  by  an  undue  devotion  to 
one  duty,  the  health  of  the  soul  become  impaired,  and 
its  powers  fail  of  their  symmetrical  development. 
There  is  danger  that  a  Professor,  in  exposing  and 
refuting  the  errors  of  books,  overlook  the  more  preva- 
lent and  practical  errors  which  his  pupils  will  be  called 
to  encounter.  But  there  is  no  necessary  inconsistency 
between  the  most  diligent  professional  studies  and  the 
culture  of  a  warm,  genial,  and  profound  piety.  Where 
shall  we  look  for  more  of  a  devout,  spiritual,  heavenly 
mind,  than  in  the  writings  of  Calvin,  Witsius,  and 
Leighton,  and  in  those  very  writings,  too,  which  con- 
stituted a  part  of  their  theological  instructions  ? 

You  may,  then,  even  while  serving  the  Church  by 
your  intellectual  labours,  aid  in  the  promotion  of  a 
higher  piety ;  and  you  will  do  this  by  the  habitual 
exhibition  of  a  devout  spirit  to  your  pupils.  It  is  not 
enough  that  you  fulfil  your  vows  of  ordination  and 
inauguration  by  inculcating  an  orthodox  creed ;  that 
creed  must  be  the  utterance  of  a  faith  which  standeth 


12  CHARGE. 

"  not  in  the  wisdom  of  men,  but  in  the  power  of  God ;" 
a  faith  wrought  in  you,  not  by  the  convincing  logic  of 
reason  alone,  but  by  the  powerful  demonstration  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  We  might  point  to  melancholy 
chapters  in  the  Church's  history,  which  prove  the  in- 
sufficiency of  a  frigid  orthodoxy  to  mould  aright  the 
ministers  of  truth.  We  might  point  to  examples, 
where  a  sound  creed  has  been  inculcated  by  the  lips, 
but  where  levity  and  irreverence  of  spirit,  or  an  over- 
weening self-esteem  and  a  haughty  contempt  for  others, 
on  the  part  of  teachers,  has  been  followed  by  sad  defec- 
tions from  purity  of  faith  and  life,  on  that  of  the 
pupils,  and  where  such  defections  have  been  the  pal- 
pable fruits  of  vicious  examples.  We  could  also  refer 
you  to  instances  in  which  the  aid  mas  of  the  teacher 
has  done  well-nigh  as  much  to  secure  a  cordial  adoption 
of  his  doctrines,  as  the  formal  reasonings  by  which 
they  were  sustained.  If  the  spirit  you  breathe  be  in 
harmony  witli  your  doctrines,  those  doctrines,  to  the 
minds  of  your  students,  will  be  endowed  with  vitality ; 
and  they  will  grow  wherever  they  are  scattered  through 
the  Church.  If  your  faith  in  the  divinity  of  the  book 
which  you  are  called  to  interpret  be  a  sincere,  fervent, 
and  profound  faith;  if  your  students  discover  that  you 
unfold  and  illustrate  its  meaning,  not  as  a  mere 
amateur;  that  you  exhibit  an  orthodox  exegesis,  not 
to  comply  with  professional  engagements,  but  from 
deep-rooted,  experimental  conviction  of  its  truth  and 


CHARGE.  13 

preciousness, — nothing  can  destroy  the  power  of  your 
example;  it  will  be  felt  even  by  sceptical  minds, 
when  ingenuity  has  exhausted  all  its  cavils  and 
sophistries. 

The  department  to  which  you  have  been  called  by 
the  voice  of  the  Church,  derives  a  special  interest  from 
several  circumstances,  which  deserve  to  be  noticed  as 
"  signs  of  the  times." 

It  is  not  necessary  to  prove,  that  the  disposition  to 
draw  Christian  doctrine  from  its  original  fountains, 
rather  than  to  receive  it  through  the  channels  of  theo- 
logical systems,  has  very  decidedly  increased  among 
ministers  and  candidates  for  the  ministry  in  our  Church 
and  country.  Methodized  views  of  divine  truth  seem 
to  have  lost  much  of  the  authority  which  they  once 
exerted.  The  restive  spirit  of  the  age  is  impatient 
under  any  authority,  or  system  ;  and  especially  under 
systems  of  hoary  antiquity.  The  ablest  systems  of 
divinity,  moreover,  are  in  obstinate  antagonism  to 
current  theological  predilections.  To  those,  too,  who 
wish  to  appear  independent  investigators  of  Christian 
doctrine,  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  in  their  original 
tongues  is  a  captivating  thought :  it  has  the  air  of 
greater  freedom  from  bias  to  all  human  authority ;  it 
looks  like  real  independence.  These  and  other  rea- 
sons have,  doubtless,  contributed  to  weaken  even  the 
lawful  influence  of  systematic  theology,  and  to  encou- 
rage greater  attention  to  studies  strictly  biblical. 


14  CHARGE. 

A  more  obvious  cause  may  be  found,  in  the  extent 
to  which  the  critical  and  philological  labours  of  the 
ripest  modern  scholars  have  become  available  to  stu- 
dents. The  apparatus  for  the  advantageous  study  of 
biblical  criticism  and  exegesis  is  now  accessible,  and  is 
now  employed  by  multitudes,  who,  fifty  years  since, 
would  scarcely  have  understood  its  design  and  use. 
It  is  not  necessary,  in  this  place,  to  maintain  the 
value  and  necessity  of  an  acquaintance  with  systema- 
tic theology.  We  do  not  need  to  be  assured  of  its 
service  in  disciplining  the  mind ;  in  imparting  clear, 
discriminating,  and  enlarged  views  of  revelation,  and 
in  training  vigilant,  quicksighted,  and  expert  defenders 
of  the  truth.  Still,  it  is  ground  for  rejoicing,  that  the 
teachers  of  God's  Word  are  qualifying  themselves  to 
draw  their  religious  knowledge  from  the  inspired 
Word,  rather  than  from  human  compilations  of  its 
truths.  We,  at  least,  have  no  reason  to  dread  the 
most  rigorous  application  of  sound  Hermeneutics  to 
the  Sacred  Volume.  Kecent  occurrences  in  this  insti- 
tution have  assured  even  the  timid,  that  consummate 
scholarship,  when  united  with  those  moral  pre-requi- 
sites  which  are  essential  to  the  understanding  of  the 
Bible,  so  far  from  invalidating,  greatly  confirms  the 
authority  of  those  doctrines  maintained  by  our  Church. 
We  have  seen  that,  to  the  most  accomplished  scholars, 
who  consult  it  with  a  becoming  spirit,  the  Bible  yields 
ilr     ame  response,  as  l<»  the  most  unlettered  student; 


CHARGE.  15 

except  that  it  enounces,  with  greater  distinctness,  the 
truths  which,  in  every  age,  have  nourished  humble 
piety. 

But  cheering  as  is  the  prospect  of  an  increased  at- 
tention to  strictly  biblical  studies,  there  is  one  phe- 
nomenon which  demands  the  notice  of  the  Church, 
and  especially  of  those  who  are  set  to  defend  the 
canonical  authority  and  inspiration  of  the  Sacred 
Volume,  and  to  evolve  its  meaning  by  their  interpre- 
tations. It  is  the  unseemly  and  alarming  fact,  that, 
to  a  very  large  extent,  the  critical  appliances  of  the 
scholar  have  been  constructed  by  notorious  enemies 
of  the  Gospel  of  God. 

It  is  not,  indeed,  a  new  thing  for  intelligent  theolo- 
gians to  study  the  writings  of  infidels  and  heretics. 
They  have  always  done  so;  but  they  have  studied 
them  as  infidel  and  heretical.  They  have  read  them 
for  purposes  of  information  or  refutation ;  and,  there- 
fore, with  all  the  caution  and  circumspection  which  a 
knowledge  of  their  mischievous  character  and  design 
would  naturally  inspire.  But,  in  our  day,  it  is  cus- 
tomary to  consult  such  writers,  as  authorities  and 
helps  to  the  understanding  of  the  mind  of  the  Spirit ! 

How  monstrous  would  it  have  seemed  to  our 
fathers,  for  a  student  of  theology  to  sit  down  to  the 
study  of  Introduction,  with  the  assistance  of  Voltaire ; 
or  of  Prophecy,  with  the  help  of  Anthony  Collins;  or 
of  the  Mosaic  Economy,  with  the  aid  of  Chubb;  or 


10  CHARGE. 

the  Mysteries  of  the  Christian  system,  with  that  of 
Toland  and  Tindal;  or  Miracles,  with  the  aid  of 
Blount,  Woolston,  or  Hume.  Yet,  to  an  extent,  this 
is  virtually  done,  by  those  who  employ  the  Introduc- 
tions, Hermeneutical  Treatises,  Lexicons,  and  Com- 
mentaries of  many  of  the  most  popular  and  eminent 
German  scholars.  The  Rationalism  of  Germany  is 
pronounced  by  German  divines  themselves,  the  growth 
of  the  English  Deism  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  seed,  which  in  England  fell  on  stony  or  thorny 
ground,  found  in  the  "dead  orthodoxy"  of  Germany 
a  congenial  soil ;  and  brought  forth  fruit  an  hundred- 
fold. That  fruit  is  now  set  before  us  in  much  of  the 
apparatus  furnished  to  students,  as  an  aid  to  the 
knowledge  of  God's  inspired  word. 

This  fruit  has  already  produced  "seed  after  its 
kind,"  both  in  our  own  land,  and  in  the  land  of  our 
fathers.  Even  where  a  sounder  faith  has  revolted  at 
its  more  flagrant  enormities,  we  can  often  see  that 
error  has  left  its  taint.  We  see  it  in  the  deference 
paid  to  learned  errorists,  even  in  matters  respecting 
which  they  have  no  claim  to  deference.  We  see  it  in 
that  sort  of  apologetic  tone,  in  which  certain  great 
truths  are  still  professed.  We  see  it  in  laboured 
efforts  to  prove  as  true,  what  should  be  assumed  as 
such ;  because  it  finds  a  better  witness  in  an  unsophis- 
ticated Christian  conscience  than  in  any  mere  reason- 
in-    whatsoever.       We    hear   only  a  faint   and   hall- 


CHARGE.  17 

hearted  protest  against  godless  temerity,  from  some 
who  are  bound  to  speak  out  in  tones  of  reprobation 
loud,  deep,  and  unequivocal.  We  see  it  in  the  low 
views  of  inspiration,  inculcated  in  some  of  the  high 
places  of  theological  instruction  in  our  land.  We 
hear  an  eminent  biblical  teacher  asserting,  that  "an 
inspiration  of  words  is  quite  improbable ;"  and  by 
elaborate  attempts  aiming  to  convince  us  that  we  are 
bound  to  assign  to  the  words  of  the  loftiest  prophecies, 
no  other  meaning  than  the  prophets  themselves  as- 
signed. 

How  far  the  theory  which  undertakes  to  distinguish 
between  an  inspiration  of  ideas  and  an  inspiration  of 
words  may  have  owed  its  birth  and  consequence  to 
those  distinctions,  which  sounder  men  have  ventured 
to  assume  when  they  speak  of  an  "  inspiration  of 
superintendence,"  and  of  "  elevation,"  and  of  "  sugges- 
tion," it  would  be  unseasonable  now  to  consider.  It 
is  a  subject,  however,  which  the  defenders  of  God's 
truth  in  its  integrity  will  be  compelled  to  consider. 
Certain  it  is,  that  those  who  profess  to  recognise  the 
sacred  writers  as  supernaturally  inspired  of  God,  while 
they  ignore  the  claims  of  the  writings  themselves  to 
such  an  inspiration,  are  standing  on  slippery  places. 
It  is  impossible  for  them  to  receive  and  treat  Holy 
Scripture  with  that  devout  reverence,  which  is  pro- 
duced by  a  hearty  belief  in  the  apostolic  assertion  : 
"  Which  things  also  we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which 


18  CHARGE. 

man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
teacheth;  irvsv^xriKQig  nvtvuaTiKCL  crvyKgivovres,  explaining  the 
things  of  the  Spirit,  by  the  words  of  the  Spirit."  How 
is  it  possible,  to  regard  and  treat  as  the  infallible  voice 
of  God  those  writings,  which,  whatever  may  be  said 
of  the  sentiments  they  contain,  were,  as  to  their  lan- 
guage, the  work  of  fallible  men  ?  Such  teachers  have 
no  cause  for  astonishment,  whatever  may  be  their 
alarm,  when  their  pupils  venture  a  step  in  advance ; 
and  claim  for  the  illumination  which  is  common  to  all 
true  Christians,  an  equality  with  that  infallible  guid- 
ance vouchsafed  to  prophets,  apostles,  and  evangelists. 

This  last  phase  of  opinion  respecting  the  doctrine  of 
inspiration  claims  the  vigilant  notice  of  the  Church, 
and  especially  of  her  theological  teachers.  Not  that 
it  is  wholly  a  new  form  of  human  pride  and  delusion ; 
for  claims  to  an  inward  light,  of  equal  brightness  and 
safety  with  the  written  word,  have  been  made  by 
enthusiasts  and  mystics  in  every  age.  But  it  comes 
to  us  now  in  imposing  forms ;  and  it  is  diffused  among 
us  through  new  and  more  dangerous  channels. 

The  recent  defection  from  among  the  faculty  of  the 
orthodox  school  of  Geneva  has  attracted  special  atten- 
tion, because  public  sentiment  in  that  meridian  has 
compelled  a  public  renunciation  of  office.  In  Ger- 
many, and  among  writers,  too,  usually  esteemed  evan- 
gelical, .similar  views  are  widely  prevalent.  Who  can 
view  without  a  shudder  the  cool  nonchalanoe  with  which 


CHARGE.  19 

such  an  authority  as  Neander  sits  in  judgment  upon 
Matthew,  and  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  John  ? — pro- 
nouncing them  right  here,  and  wrong  there ;  ascribing 
this  statement  of  fact,  or  that  announcement  of  doc- 
trine, to  the  mere  "subjectivity"  of  the  writer,  who, 
in  his  estimation,  is  as  lawful  subject  of  criticism  and 
correction  as  Luther,  or  Calvin,  or  any  other  pious 
but  fallible  man. 

The  prevalence  of  such  errors  among  professed 
defenders  and  expounders  of  Holy  Writ  has  not  been 
without  its  influence  in  producing  another  pheno- 
menon which  well  deserves  your  notice.  I  refer  to 
the  recent  abandonment  of  the  great  Protestant  doc- 
trine, and  the  open  avowal  of  the  Romish  dogma 
respecting  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  on  the  part 
of  many  professed  Protestants.  It  is,  indeed,  natural 
for  men  who  cannot  find  in  Scripture  a  sufficient 
authority  for  their  belief  and  practice,  to  deny  its  suf- 
ficiency as  a  rule  for  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  ought 
not  to  excite  surprise,  when  the  members  of  a  commu- 
nion which  retained  so  many  vestiges  of  Popery,  and 
which  has  betrayed  so  many  affinities  for  it,  should, 
under  favourable  circumstances,  be  disposed  to  con- 
federate with  it.  Still  less  should  we  wonder,  that 
men  whose  faith  has  never  stood  "in  the  power  of 
God,"  should,  under  the  pressure  of  temptation,  seek 
in  the  authority  of  the  Church  a  firmer  foundation 
than  what  is  afforded  by  their  individual  convictions 


20  CHARGE. 

and  reasonings.  But  those  who  have  participated  in 
the  Romeward  movement  of  the  Oxford  Tractarians 
assign,  as  a  special  cause  of  their  retrogression,  the 
danger  to  which  the  very  foundations  of  Christianity 
are  exposed  from  Rationalistic  views  of  the  Bible,  and 
the  impossibility  of  deciding  the  points  at  issue  but  by 
the  authority  of  the  Church. 

These  signs  of  our  times  clearly  indicate  that  the 
battle  in  defence  of  the  sufficient  and  sole  authority  of 
the  Scriptures  is  to  be  fought  with  renewed  earnest- 
ness ;  and  your  department  covers  the  ground  on 
which  the  contest  is  to  be  decided  and  the  victory 
won.  For  various  reasons,  therefore,  it  becomes  you 
to  keep  a  steady  eye  to  this  conflict,  in  your  profes- 
sional instructions.  The  contest,  which  now  waxes 
more  and  more  rife,  is  not  a  dispute  for  outposts,  but 
for  the  possession  of  the  citadel  itself. 

As  a  teacher  in  the  Presbyterian  Church,  you  should 
be  prepared  to  assume  and  maintain  the  high  ground 
already  occupied  by  your  Church,  as  to  the  points  at 
issue.  Be  admonished,  by  the  history  of  the  Church, 
to  refuse  all  concessions  and  compromises  with  the 
enemies  of  God's  truth.  The  high  ground  of  defence, 
when  once  abandoned,  is  not  permitted  by  the  enemy 
to  remain  a  neutral  territory.  Posts  deserted  through 
a  false  confidence  in  your  strength,  or  a  spurious  libe- 
rality towards  your  adversaries,  will  soon  be  occupied 
as  positions  whence  with  greater  effect  to  assail   the 


CHAR  G  E.  2 1 

ark  of  God.  In  an  eminent  degree  may  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  be  said  to  maintain  the  sufficient  and 
exclusive  authority  of  the  Bible,  as  the  Christian's 
rule  of  faith  and  life.  Her  doctrines,  polity,  and 
usages,  rest  their  claims  on  the  authority  of  the 
written  Word  alone ;  and  the  highest  degree  of  inspi- 
ration, the  inspiration  of  the  writings  as  well  as  of  the 
writers, — if  there  be  meaning  in  such  a  distinction, — 
is  everywhere  in  her  standards  assumed  as  an  incon- 
trovertible fact.  The  position  and  reputation  of  this 
Seminary  demand  the  maintenance  of  the  Church's 
faith  on  this  subject.  You  and  your  colleagues  are 
justly  viewed  as  the  representatives  of  a  church,  the 
very  fulness  of  whose  doctrinal  symbols,  and  the  sharp 
exactness  with  which  those  doctrines  are  defined,  tend 
to  render  her  conservative  of  the  ancient  faith.  Lati- 
tudinarian  views  and  experimental  vagaries  in  some 
quarters  excite  little  surprise ;  but  should  Princeton 
venture  to  follow  wandering  stars,  the  consternation 
felt  would  be  "  as  when  a  standard-bearer  fainteth." 
There  are,  doubtless,  truths  which  the  steady  evolu- 
tions of  Providence  may  develope  with  greater  clear- 
ness to  the  Church  ;  and  the  history  of  our  Church 
shows  how  ready  she  is  to  acknowledge  these  develop- 
ments, by  giving  to  such  truths  greater  prominence, 
and  new  applications.  As  a  church,  we  may  be  said 
to  occupy  the  via  media  between  rigid  immobility  and 
precipitate  progress.     But  old  truths  are  truths  still ; 


22  CHARGE. 

and  with  respect  to  a  truth  so  fundamental  to  the  life 
of  the  Church  as  that  of  the  sufficient  and  sole  autho- 
rity of  God's  Word,  we  need  expect  no  new  light ;  and 
we  dare  not  swerve  a  line  from  the  ancient  landmark. 

To  you,  in  part,  it  belongs  to  teach  what  is  the  real 
office  of  the  Church  as  to  the  Scriptures,  by  exhibiting 
her  function  and  position  with  respect  to  the  integrity, 
canonical  authority,  and  inspiration  of  the  Sacred 
Books.  You  have  within  your  reach  the  most  effec- 
tive weapons  with  which  to  repel  the  assaults  of  tra- 
ditionists  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  advocates  of  a 
mere  nominal  inspiration  on  the  other.  The  subject 
of  Inspiration  may  properly  enough  be  made  the 
theme  of  a  lecture,  as  introductory  to  a  course  of 
didactic  theology ;  but  you  possess  the  amplest  means 
of  exhibiting,  illustrating,  and  confirming  this  doctrine. 
The  incompetency  of  the  Church  to  impart  authority 
to  those  very  records  upon  which  alone  rests  all  her 
own  authority  to  do  and  to  teach,  may  properly  enough 
be  treated  by  your  colleagues ;  but  to  you  belong  the 
fairest  opportunities  of  convincing  your  pupils  that  the 
Sacred  Word  carries  within  itself  the  highest  creden- 
tials of  its  divinity ;  so  that,  without  the  witness 
of  the  Church,  it  is  able  to  substantiate  its  claims  to 
inspiration,  and  to  supreme  authority  over  the  under- 
standing and  conscience. 

A  lecturer  on  theology  may  teach  the  inspiration  and 
sufficiency  of  Scripture,  as  a  botanist  or  geologist  may 


CHARGE.  23 

teach  their  respective  sciences  by  the  illustrative  aids 
of  a  hortu8  siccus  or  cabinet  specimens.  But  the  ex- 
pounder of  the  Bible  is  like  the  botanist  who  roams 
field  and  forest  with  his  pupils ;  or  the  geologist  who 
exhibits  to  the  eye  the  actual  formations  of  the  globe. 
In  every  part  of  that  volume  which  you  will  be 
called  to  interpret  to  your  pupils,  you  find  manifest 
and  numberless  proofs  that  He  who  so  framed  the 
heavens  as  to  declare  the  glory  of  His  eternal  power 
and  Godhead,  has  so  framed  his  Word  as  to  unfold  the 
glory  of  his  wisdom,  holiness,  and  grace;  that  if  the 
footprints  of  God  our  Creator  are  visible  throughout 
the  world,  the  handiwork  of  God  our  Saviour  is,  with 
equal  distinctness,  displayed  in  the  volume  of  his 
Word ;  and  that  if  the  laws  of  our  intellectual  constitu- 
tion compel  us  to  own  an  intelligent  contriver  of  the 
one,  the  laws  of  our  moral  nature  constrain  us  to 
acknowledge  a  holy  and  omniscient  Spirit  as  the 
author  of  the  other.  Without  formal  and  elaborate 
disquisitions,  you  may  incidentally  furnish  to  your 
students  convincing  illustrations  of  the  apostolic  doc- 
trine, that  the  written  Word  is  a  surer  testimony  to 
the  soul  than  the  voice  heard  on  the  mount  of  trans- 
figuration, and  much  more  than  the  voice  of  the 
Church,  were  that  voice  semper,  ubicunque,  et  ah  omni- 
bus idem.  You  may  direct  their  notice  to  the  manifold 
evidences  of  a  divine  hand,  as  well  as  a  divine  mind, 
in  this  sacred  book.     You  may  exhibit  the  fallacy  of 


24  CHARGE. 

all  attempts  to  discriminate  between  the  parts  of 
Scripture,  as  more  or  less  fully  inspired.  You  may 
teach  them  to  regard  the  words  of  Scripture  as  Christ 
and  his  apostles  regarded  them, — even  as  the  words  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Thus  will  you  guard  them  against 
the  insidious  subtleties  by  which  they  are  now  endan- 
gered, and  convince  them  that  those  who  bring  their 
philosophy  to  the  explanation  of  an  acknowledged 
mystery  are,  after  all,  but  "minute  philosophers." 
Let  your  students  be  well  versed  in  these  proofs  of 
the  divinity  of  the  Bible;  let  them  be  familiarized, 
not  only  with  the  direct  assertions,  but  with  the 
indirect  and  various  evidences,  which  declare  it  to  be 
God's  work,  and  not  man's;  and  you  furnish  them 
at  once  with  the  safest  panoply  and  the  most  formida- 
ble weapons  against  the  two  great  heresies  of  the  age, 
— that  which  asserts  the  necessity  of  the  Church's 
authority  in  order  to  that  of  Scripture,  and  that  which 
claims  for  personal  illumination  equal  authority  with 
Scripture  itself.  Though  seemingly  heterogeneous, 
these  errors  are  scions  of  a  common  stock ;  and  hence, 
in  time,  they  always  produce  the  same  fruit.  They 
both  proceed  from  a  moral  incapacity  to  discern,  and 
a  consequent  denial  of,  the  "  self-evidencing  power  of 
Holy  Scripture."  The  one  exalts  the  authority  of 
individual  man,  the  other  the  authority  of  man  in  the 
collective  capacity  of  the  Church ;  and,  in  thus  exalt- 
ing man,  each  becomes  guilty  of  degrading  the  Word 


CHARGE.  25 

of  God.  It  is,  therefore,  no  mystery  that  each  in  their 
season  becomes  productive  of  flagrant  infidelity.  The 
Bible  itself  is  the  armory  from  which  your  students 
can  best  equip  themselves  for  successful  warfare 
against  both. 

Be  careful  to  magnify  your  office,  by  asserting  and 
vindicating  the  importance  of  your  own  department. 

You  have  a  special  need  to  do  this.  Observation 
has  taught  you  the  proneness  of  students  to  underrate 
it.  You  will  have  numerous  applications  for  dispen- 
sation and  indulgence,  from  those  who  are  approach- 
ing the  end  of  their  curriculum.  Be  resolute  in  your 
purpose,  to  refuse  all  requests  for  a  release  from  the 
closing  course  of  your  instructions.  After  all  that  the 
Church  has  said  and  done,  to  make  of  her  ministers 
biblical  scholars,  it  is  worse  than  unwise  in  students 
to  intermit  their  efforts  in  your  department,  at  the 
very  time  when  these  studies  are  becoming  of  prac- 
tical value.  The  Church  has  not  endowed  professor- 
ships and  placed  her  choicest  men  here,  in  order  to 
give  to  her  sons  such  a  smattering  of  Greek  and  He- 
brew, as  will  just  secure  a  Presbyterial  licensure.  By 
the  explicit  declaration  of  the  "Plan"  of  this  Semi- 
nary, her  aim  is  to  impart  such  a  knowledge  of  the 
original  tongues,  as  will  be  available  to  her  ministers 
through  life.  Be  stringent,  therefore,  in  your  requi- 
sitions on  your  students,  down  to  the  close  of  the  pre- 
scribed course  of  study. 


26  CHARGE. 

Just  in  proportion  to  the  facility  with  which  you 
yield  to  the  pleas  of  weak  vision,  and  weak  digestion, 
will  you  find  these  infirmities  multiply.  Be  not 
afraid  to  disclose  the  unpalatable  truth,  that  infirmi- 
ties of  head  and  heart  are  much  more  frequent  mala- 
dies among  students,  than  infirmities  of  the  body.  If, 
among  your  pupils,  you  find  a  head  too  weak  to  appre- 
ciate the  importance  of  ample  furniture;  or  a  heart 
too  weak  to  endure  the  toil  necessary  to  the  highest 
future  usefulness;  then  help  these  weaknesses  by  re- 
quiring all  such  valetudinarians  faithfully  to  follow 
you  to  the  very  termination  of  your  course. 

But  we  would  not  recommend  the  exercise  of  your 
lawful  authority,  as  the  principal  means  of  securing 
attention  to  your  special  department.  Aim  to  con- 
vince your  students,  that  the  man  who,  with  right 
motives,  goes  to  the  very  fountain,  rather  than  to  the 
streams  of  divine  truth,  puts  most  honour  upon  the 
word  of  God;  and,  therefore,  is  most  likely  to  be 
honoured  of  God.  Let  them  know  that,  with  few 
exceptions,  the  men  whom  God  has  made  most  exten- 
sively and  permanently  useful  to  his  Church,  were 
eminent  in  their  times  as  biblical  scholars;  and  that 
this  must  be  the  case,  even  to  a  greater  extent  than  it 
lias  been.  Let  them  know,  that  the  student  who  can 
draw  his  theology  and  philosophy  from  the  Bible,  is 
less  likely  than  others,  to  be  entangled  in  the  meshes 
of  a  false  philosophy.     Let  them  know,  that  amid  the 


CHARGE.  27 

ceaseless  mutations  of  philosophical  systems,  there  is 
one  system  which  remains  unchanged;  and  that  sys- 
tem is  the  only  one  which  the  Bible  recognises  as  true, 
— the  Philosophy  of  Common  Sense.  In  demolishing 
specious  sophistries,  and  in  reaching  the  souls  of  sin- 
ners, they  will  find  this  philosophy  a  trenchant  wea- 
pon; inferior  in  keenness  only  to  "the  sword  of  the 
Spirit."  In  a  word,  aim  to  inspire  the  conviction 
that  it  is  more  seemly  for  Protestants  to  be  expert 
interpreters  of  their  Kule  of  Faith  than  to  be  dex- 
terous defenders  of  human  symbols  and  systems ;  and 
that  the  deductions  of  a  fair  scriptural  exegesis  must, 
to  a  right-feeling  mind,  be  more  conclusive  than  the 
most  rigid  theological  dialectics.  You  will  have  done 
much  towards  the  formation  of  accomplished  divines, 
when  you  persuade  your  students  of  the  truth  of  the 
maxim,  "Bonus  Textuarius  est  Bonus  Theologus." 

As  preachers  of  the  Word,  too,  your  students  should 
be  made  to  feel  the  importance  of  a  competency  to 
consult  that  Word  in  its  originals.  The  student  who 
examines  every  text  in  the  language  and  connexion 
in  which  God  has  given  it,  is  conscious  of  standing  on 
firmer  ground,  and  he  will  move  with  a  steadier  step, 
than  he  who  depends  for  his  knowledge  on  a  mere 
version,  or  popular  commentator.  The  sermons  of  such 
preachers  are  likely  to  possess  more  of  freshness,  and 
raciness,  and  agreeable  variety,  than  where  theological 
knowledge  is  drawn  from  systems  of  divinity,  however 


28  CHARGE. 

judicious.  For  the  sake  of  uniformity  and  harmony  of 
doctrine  in  a  church,  it  is  of  eminent  importance  that 
her  ministers  be  conducted  through  the  same  system 
of  theology.  Our  Church  contemplated  this  end  in 
the  foundation  of  this  Seminary;  and  her  history  has 
proved  the  wisdom  of  the  design. 

But  if  digests  of  divinity  be  the  only  or  the  chief 
sources  of  theological  information,  the  sermons  of 
ministers,  thus  trained,  will  be  likely  to  betray  an  un- 
desirable sameness  of  features.  To  secure  circumstan- 
tial variety  with  substantial  unity,  in  the  matter  of 
preaching,  our  students  should  be  as  expert  inter- 
preters, as  they  are  well-disciplined  theological  logi- 
cians. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  in  this  connexion,  to  urge  upon 
your  attention  what,  perhaps,  is  more  likely  to  be 
overlooked  where  the  work  of  ministerial  training  is 
divided  among  several  teachers,  than  where  the  whole 
work  is  entrusted  to  an  individual.  It  is  the  obvious, 
but  sometimes  forgotten  fact,  that  the  great  aim  of 
each  department  should  be,  to  make  good  preachers. 

Scholarship  is  but  a  means  to  an  end ;  and,  except 
in  a  few  cases,  its  value  is  to  be  measured  by  its  availa- 
bility to  the  pulpit.  Our  congregations  are  but  indif- 
ferent judges  of  proficiency  in  Greek  inflections,  or 
Hebrew  roots;  but  they  esteem  themselves,  and  they 
will  be,  judges  of  every  man's  capacity  to  preach. 
The  kind  of  work,  too,  which  is  demanded  in  our 


CHARGE.  29 

country,  calls  for  special  attention  to  the  art  of  popu- 
lar address.  In  aiming  to  make  scholars,  then,  let  it 
never  be  forgotten  that  this  scholarship  is  designed  to 
reach  the  multitude  chiefly  through  the  pulpit.  To 
secure  excellence  in  the  work  of  preaching  should  be 
the  aim  of  every  theological  school  5  but  most  of  all, 
of  the  schools  of  our  own  Church. 

For  her  increase  and  legitimate  influence,  no  church 
is  so  dependent  on  her  preachers,  as  the  Presbyterian  s* 
and  it  is  one  proof  of  her  apostolicity,  that  this  is  so. 
She  has  less  to  captivate  mankind,  aside  from  the  style 
of  her  preaching,  than  any  other  Christian  denomina- 
tion. She  holds  forth  no  diluted  system  of  doctrine, 
by  which  to  propitiate  the  carnal  mind  to  the  mortify- 
ing truths  of  the  Gospel.  She  employs  no  pompous 
ritual,  by  which  to  fascinate  the  senses.  She  does  not 
consult  the  deep-seated  propensity  of  man  to  substitute 
ceremonies  for  spiritualities ;  by  exalting  a  mere  sacra- 
ment above  the  very  truths  upon  which  it  is  founded. 
She  does  not  venture  to  relieve  the  sinner's  soul  of  its 
sense  of  direct  responsibility  to  God,  by  becoming  a 
virtual  sponsor  for  its  salvation.  She  has  no  such 
flattering  unction  for  the  conscience,  as  that  which  is 
found  in  the  delightful  delusion — in  the  Church,  in 
Christ.  She  knows  nothing  of  that  religious  material- 
ism by  which  contact  with  a  certain  line  of  ministry, 

*  T\re  of  course  include  under  this  term  the  different  branches  of 
the  great  Presbyterian  family. 


30  CHARGE. 

and  communication  in  sacraments  duly  solemnized, 
assures  the  soul  of  its  union  with  the  Fountain  of  life. 
With  an  emphasis  which  would  be  unseemly  in  many 
quarters,  she  may  say,  "  Christ  sent  me,  not  to  baptize, 
but  to  preach  the  Gospel."  Upon  her  preaching,  more 
than  upon  all  else  besides,  and  more  than  any  sect 
besides,  does  she  depend,  under  God,  for  her  lawful 
position  in,  and  before,  the  world.  To  furnish  accom- 
plished preachers,  therefore,  should  be  the  aim  of  every 
teacher  in  our  Seminary. 

Before  I  turn  to  my  last  topic,  permit  me  to  suggest 
to  you  the  propriety  of  keeping  steadily  before  your 
mind  a  service  of  another  kind  which  you  may 
render  to  the  Church,  without  trenching  upon  your 
principal  duties  in  this  Seminary.  I  refer  to  the  pre- 
paration of  some  treatise,  for  the  use  of  scholars  in 
your  own  department. 

The  condition  of  students  who  desire  to  search  the 
Word  of  God  with  the  best  appliances  furnished  by 
recent  scholars,  is  very  like  that  of  Israel,  when  "  they 
went  down  to  the  Philistines  to  sharpen  every  man 
his  share,  and  his  coulter,  and  his  axe,  and  his  mat- 
tock." We  are,  in  some  measure,  compelled  to  resort 
to  the  uncircumcised,  when  we  would  sharpen  our  im- 
plements of  industry,  or  warfare  ;  and  it  is  not  without 
peril  that  we  adventure  ourselves  into  the  enemy's 
territory.  Not  only  arc  the  streams  defiled,  but  the 
vety  fountains  are  tainted.     The  venom  distilled  into 


CHARGE.  31 

introductions  and  commentaries  may  be  detected  even 
in  lexicons  and  systems  of  Hermeneutics.  To  those 
in  your  station  we  are  compelled  to  look  for  our  much- 
needed  helps.  Your  predecessors  in  this  department 
have  led  the  way,  and  laid  the  Christian  world  under 
obligations,  by  the  fruits  of  their  labour.  Like  the 
conquerors  of  Napoleon,  they  learned  the  art  of 
modern  warfare  from  the  enemies  of  truth,  and  then 
vanquished  them  by  their  own  tactics  and  weapons. 
Like  David,  they  have  spoiled  the  uncircumcised  of 
their  treasures,  and  consecrated  them  to  the  service 
of  God,  in  a  monument  which,  we  trust,  will  be  more 
enduring  than  the  temple  itself.  It  is  no  small  satis- 
faction to  reflect,  that  while  they  still  perform  the 
duties  of  the  living  teacher,  their  writings  are  mould- 
ing influential  minds,  not  only  throughout  their  own 
church  and  country,  but  in  distant  lands  and  in  foreign 
tongues.  They  have  convinced  the  timid,  that  the 
cause  of  truth  has  nothing  to  dread,  but  much  to  hope, 
from  consummate  scholarship,  wherever  it  is  directed 
by  a  devout  heart  and  a  solid  judgment.  May  we 
not  hope,  that  the  Church  is  destined  to  receive  from 
you,  as  it  has  from  every  other  teacher  in  this  school, 
a  contribution  to  her  literature  which  shall  do  honour 
to  the  name  of  Princeton,  and  lasting  service  to  truth 
and  godliness. 

I  have  thus  far  had  respect,  chiefly,  to  your  labours 
for  the  intellectual  welfare  of  this  Seminary,  and  of 


32  CHARGE. 

the  Church.  There  is  another  department  of  duty,  to 
overlook  which,  would  be  to  lose  sight  of  one  great 
end  for  which  this  institution  was  reared. 

No  one  can  inspect  the  original  "Plan"  of  this 
Seminary,  without  being  impressed  by  the  pre-emi- 
nence given  to  the  culture  of  piety,  above  mere  scho- 
lastic acquisitions. 

High  as  was  the  place  assigned  to  professional 
knowledge,  it  was  in  the  view  of  the  Church,  and  by 
the  distinct  avowal  of  its  "  Plan,"  wholly  subordinate 
to  a  practical  obedience  to  Christ,  in  a  holy,  spiritual 
life.  Learning,  in  the  estimation  of  those  who  drafted 
our  "  Plan,"  was  subsidiary  to  the  promotion  of  vital 
godliness  in  the  Church,  and  throughout  the  world. 
They  press  this  upon  the  hearts  of  teachers  and  scho- 
lars. They  are  not  content  with  the  bare  assertion  of 
its  importance,  but  suggest  the  means  by  which  it 
may  be  promoted.  In  addition  to  the  sedulous  culture 
of  piety  in  the  closet,  they  recommend  daily,  weekly, 
and  monthly  meetings  for  prayer  and  Christian  con- 
ference. They  look  to  the  intimate  social  life  here 
led  by  the  students,  as  a  precious  means  of  fostering 
piety,  as  well  as  of  laying  a  foundation  for  valuable 
friendships.  They  view  the  professors,  not  simply  as 
teachers,  but  as  pastors ;  and,  through  their  Christian 
intercourse,  they  hoped  to  nurture  the  hearts,  as  well 
as  to  store  the  minds  of  their  students. 

And  this  Seminary  has  in  a  good  measure  realized 


CHARGE.  33 

the  wishes  and  prayers  of  its  founders.  Through  the 
grace  of  God,  experimental  piety,  as  well  as  orthodoxy, 
have  flourished  here.  This  Seminary  owes  its  hold  on 
the  confidence  of  the  Church,  far  more  to  its  religious 
character,  than  to  its  orthodoxy,  or  its  learning.  May 
this  ever  be  its  highest,  as  it  is  its  most  honourable 
distinction. 

You  possess  immense  advantages  for  promoting  the 
life  of  religion ;  may  you  be  enabled  to  improve  them, 
by  diffusing  the  savour  of  godliness  among  all  who 
come  within  the  sphere  of  your  influence.  Our  coun- 
try, in  a  special  manner,  requires  an  active,  practical, 
and  executive,  rather  than  a  recluse  and  contemplative 
piety ;  may  you  be  successful  in  nurturing  it.  The 
low  tone  of  religious  feeling,  even  among  evangelical 
men,  in  the  universities  of  Germany,  has  been  ascribed 
to  the  absence  of  frequent  and  confidential  religious  in- 
tercourse between  professors  and  their  students.  May 
you,  as  your  colleagues  have  done,  prove  yourself  the 
Christian  friend  and  spiritual  counsellor,  as  well  as 
the  acceptable  teacher  of  your  scholars.  Never  forget, 
that  symbols,  however  sound ;  forms  of  government, 
however  scriptural ;  subscription  to  formulas,  however 
stringent,  are  inadequate  safeguards  against  heresy, 
when  vital  piety  is  gone.  A  fervid  piety,  nurtured 
by  the  Spirit  of  God,  is  the  only  preservative  of  the 
truth.  The  rapid  spread  of  English  Deism  among  the 
clergy  of  Germany  has  been  ascribed  by  Neander  to 


34  CHARGE. 

the  "  dead  orthodoxy"  which  there  prevailed.  Has 
not  God  permitted  Germany  to  commit  her  speculative 
absurdities  and  impieties  for  the  benefit  of  his  Church, 
as  he  permitted  France  to  perpetrate  her  practical 
atrocities  for  the  instruction  of  the  nations  ?  France 
cast  away  from  her  the  very  word  of  God  itself,  and 
God  deluged  her  with  her  own  blood.  Germany, 
while  it  retained  the  letter  of  the  word,  cast  contempt 
upon  that  Spirit  who  gave  it ;  and  God  has  permitted 
a  wasting  deluge  of  impiety  to  sweep  over  the  very 
birthplace  of  the  Reformation.  May  the  spectacle 
prove  a  beacon  to  our  Church  and  our  schools,  warn- 
ing us  to  beware  of  a  vain  confidence  in  the  letter, 
when  the  spirit  of  life  is  wanting,  and  pointing  to  the 
doom  which  God  has  reserved  for  pride  of  intellect  and 
godless  learning. 

With  one  heart  can  we  this  day  unite  in  the  prayer, 
that  your  admission  to  the  corps  of  revered  and  be- 
loved teachers  may  be  to  them,  to  their  students,  and 
to  the  Church,  a  ground  of  grateful  joy  for  many  years 
to  come ;  that  your  feelings,  as  well  as  your  doctrines, 
may  so  harmonize  with  theirs,  as  to  preserve  "  the 
unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bonds  of  peace ;"  that  your 
name  may  be  associated  with  "  whatsoever  is  honest, 
and  just,  and  pure,  and  lovely,  and  of  good  report," 
as  is  the  venerable  name  of  Samuel  Miller  ;  and 
when  your  work  here  shall  have  been  accomplished, 
may  your  memory  and  services  be   enshrined  in   the 


CHARGE.  35 

heart  of  a  grateful  Church,  as  will  be  those  of  the 
venerated  men,  to  whom  God  so  graciously  entrusted 
the  infancy  of  this  Seminary. 

"  May  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
be  with  you  alway.     Amen." 


AN  INAUGURAL  DISCOURSE. 


REY.  WILLIAM  HENRY  GREEN, 


PROFESSOR  OF  BIBLICAL  AND  ORIENTAL  LITERATURE  IN  THE  THEOLOGICAL 
SEMINARY  AT  PRINCETON. 


INAUGURAL   DISCOURSE. 


The  religious  questions  of  the  age  seem  to  be  con- 
centrating more  and  more  about  one  point, — the 
authority  due  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Are  they  the 
sole  infallible  rule  of  faith  ?  Or  are  they  an  infallible 
rule  of  faith  at  all  ?  It  is  here  precisely  that  there 
must  be  fought  the  grand  battle  with  Ritualism  on  the 
one  hand,  and  with  Scepticism  on  the  other.  The 
parties  are  merely  skirmishing  about  the  outposts,  so 
long  as  they  confine  their  controversy  to  other  matters. 
It  is  not  until  they  come  to  this,  that  they  are  joined 
in  close  and  mortal  combat,  and  the  result  here  is 
decisive  of  the  entire  conflict.  Ritualism,  entrenching 
itself  in  the  felt  necessities  of  human  nature,  and  its 
cravings  for  divine  light  and  guidance,  is  not  content 
with  that  single  medium  by  which  those  necessities 
are  in  fact  met,  and  that  guidance  is  in  fact  furnished, 
but  has  set  up,  in  addition  to  the  reality  of  an  inspired 
word,  the  figment  of  an  inspired  church,  whose  tradi- 
tions preserved  within  her  communion,  and  whose 
decisions  pronounced  ex  cathedra  are  to  be  received 


40  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

as  of  equal  authority  and  value  with  the  true  sayings 
of  God.  Eeacting  from  the  absurdities  and  inconsis- 
tencies which  follow  upon  this  claim  for  infallibility 
for  what  is  liable  to  err  and  often  has  erred,  Scepticism 
flies  to  the  opposite  extreme,  of  refusing  to  admit  any 
infallible  guide  at  all ;  and,  because  it  has  been  deluded 
by  the  ignis  fatuus,  distrusts  the  pole-star. 

But  this  transition,  however  natural,  and  however 
easily  accounted  for,  is  an  irrational  one.  It  is  no 
superstition  of  a  past  age,  such  as  advancing  know- 
ledge should  sweep  away,  to  be  held  by  the  authority 
of  the  word  of  God.  There  is  a  bondage  in  authority, 
and  that  of  the  most  degrading  kind,  and  against  it 
every  correct  and  every  noble  principle  of  our  nature 
rises  in  rebellion,  when  it  would  constrain  to  cleave  to 
error.  It  imposes  on  its  subjects  a  craven  fear  of 
examination,  a  dread  to  see  the  truth  even  when 
exhibited,  and  an  obstinate  adherence,  in  spite  of  clear 
light  and  convincing  argument,  and  even  the  evidence 
of  the  senses,  to  the  dicta  of  their  teachers.  But  there 
is  no  slavery,  and  no  unmanliness,  in  committing  our- 
selves to  the  guidance  of  infallible  truth.  It  is  no 
constraint  laid  upon  a  man's  faculties  to  require  him 
to  believe  simply  on  authority,  where  that  authority 
cannot  mislead ;  it  is  then  itself  a  sufficient  reason  for 
believing.  The  free  spirit  of  investigation  need  not 
be  fettered,  nor  the  ear  closed  upon  any  of  the  whis- 
perings   of    truth   which    can    be   caught    anywhere 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  41 

around  us.  We  are  not  required  to  walk  blindfold  in 
following  our  guide,  but  rather  to  keep  our  eyes  wide 
open,  that  we  may  see  how  safely  he  conducts  us,  and 
how  treacherous  is  every  other  path  but  that  in  which 
he  leads.  It  is  no  part  of  our  creed  to  discard  facts, 
wherever  or  by  whomsoever  brought  to  light,  nor  to 
refuse  just  inferences,  nor  to  decline  the  most  thorough 
searching  of  the  conclusions  which  we  have  reached, 
nor  their  examination  from  the  most  varied  points  of 
observation,  nor  to  forbid  the  investigation  of  new  and 
untrodden  paths,  from  an  anxiety  lest  all  this  should 
prove  hazardous  to  the  symbols  of  our  faith.  With 
our  conviction  of  their  truth  is  allied  the  confident 
persuasion  that  every  fresh  discovery,  in  whatsoever 
direction,  must  ultimately  tend  to  confirm  them.  We 
are,  indeed,  saved  by  the  confidence  we  repose  in  them 
from  joining  in  the  wild  chase  after  every  vagary, 
losing  our  balance  at  every  blow,  or  being  driven 
about  by  every  shifting  wind.  We  shall  not  at  the 
first  shock  throw  ourselves  off  the  firm  foundation 
tested  by  ages,  and  commit  our  fortunes  to  the  un- 
steady sea  of  conjecture.  We  feel  entirely  secure  of 
our  standing,  even  when  appearances  seem  momenta- 
rily to  lie  against  it.  The  winds  may  roar,  and  the 
floods  may  dash  tumultuously ;  but  when  the  tempest 
clears  away  and  the  waves  recede,  it  will  be  seen  that 
the  tower  of  our  defence  still  stands ;  and  if  the  sand 
and   earth  which   had   gathered   about   its  base   are 


4J  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

washed  away,  it  will  only  be  to  reveal  still  more  dis- 
tinctly the  solid  rock  on  which  it  is  built,  and  which 
can  neither  be  shaken  nor  destroyed.  If  we  might,  in 
the  first  instance,  have  been  disposed  to  tremble  for 
the  stability  of  God's  truth,  yet  the  invariable  result 
which  has  followed  in  a  thousand  cases  before,  is  of 
itself  sufficient  to  reassure  us,  and  to  show  how  power- 
less is  every  weapon  of  hostility,  and  how  certain  the 
Bible  is  of  being  at  last  fully  and  triumphantly  vindi- 
cated. Doubts  and  difficulties  have  been  started  with 
reference  to  the  Bible,  as  great  as  any  that  now 
remain  or  are  likely  ever  to  be  raised  again,  and  they 
have  been  solved.  Objections  have  been  paraded  with 
a  great  show  of  triumph,  as  though  the  cause  of  the 
Bible  had  now  received  its  finishing-stroke ;  but  they 
have  been  answered,  to  the  confusion  of  their  authors. 
Investigations  have  been  set  on  foot,  which  at  the 
outset  seemed  to  bode  only  evil  to  the  Scriptures ;  yet 
the  end  has  always  been,  to  add  a  new  verification  of 
their  truth.  Supposed  harmonies  with  natural  truth, 
once  much  relied  upon  in  vindication  of  Scripture, 
have  been  stricken  from  us ;  but  even  this  has  had  no 
other  result  than  to  give  us,  instead  of  the  apparent 
and  the  superficial,  real  harmonies,  lying  far  deeper, 
which  bring  out  a  stronger  evidence  than  had  been 
before  suspected. 

Neither  in  the  reason  of  the  thing,  therefore,  nor  in 
experience,  is  it  either  slavish  or  unsafe  to  subject  our 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  43 

faith  to  the  authority  of  Scripture.  Nor  is  it  peculiar 
to  theological  science  that  it  obliges  us  to  trust  thus 
implicitly  to  the  veracity  of  God.  This  is  unhesita- 
tingly done,  and  is  necessary  to  be  done,  in  every  other 
science,  in  every  department  indeed  of  human  life.  Cer- 
tainty of  knowledge  is  impossible  in  anything  without 
it.  Why  is  the  plain  testimony  of  the  senses,  or  why 
are  the  evident  deductions  of  reason,  rested  in  as  un- 
doubted, but  from  the  conviction  that  the  Author  of 
our  nature  cannot  deceive  us  ?  What  confidence  have 
we  in  the  real  existence  of  things,  or  that  phenomena 
are  actually  as  we  observe  them, — what  confidence 
even  in  those  primary  principles  we  call  self-evident, — 
which  does  not  base  itself  at  last  upon  the  assumption 
that  God  is  true  ?  And  who  ever  cherishes  the  fear 
that  Nature,  which  is  his  work,  will  speak  falsely  as 
to  that  of  which  she  is  the  depository,  or  that  she  will 
ever  contradict  herself?  Who  indulges  an  apprehen- 
sion that  a  truth  fairly  deducible  from  the  phenomena 
of  any  part  of  the  material  universe,  will  be  shown  to 
be  a  falsity  by  phenomena  derived  elsewhere  ?  The 
chemist  commits  himself  implicitly  to  the  guidance  of 
that  domain  of  physics  which  is  his  chosen  field.  But 
that  does  not  make  him  bigotedly  despise  or  denounce 
investigations  elsewhere.  He  does  not  fear  the  re- 
searches of  the  natural  philosopher,  astronomer,  or 
mathematician,  as  though  his  favourite  pursuit  were 
in  any  danger  of  being  unsettled  or  overthrown  by 


44  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

theirs.  And  yet  either  one  of  them  may  bring  him  in 
facts  in  apparent  conflict  with  the  results  of  his  own 
observations.  But  this  only  compels  him  to  re-examine 
his  grounds  and  modify  his  previous  conclusions.  It 
never  awakens  a  doubt  of  the  reality  or  the  truthful- 
ness of  what  Nature  actually  teaches,  whether  in  his 
own  department  or  in  any  other.  His  conviction  is 
unshaken  that  the  phenomena  which  he  has  been 
inspecting  spoke  truth,  and  that  either  what  now 
appears  in  other  quarters  to  contradict  them  shall  be 
found  at  last  to  be  perfectly  consistent  with  the  laws 
he  has  inferred,  if  not  actually  sequences  from  them ; 
or,  if  he  has  fallen  into  error,  it  is  from  imperfect 
observation  or  too  hasty  deductions ;  and  a  more  care- 
ful and  cautious  examination,  aided  by  the  fresh  light 
he  has  now  received,  will  set  him  right. 

Now  we  may  claim  in  Theology  the  same  that  is 
everywhere  else  freely  allowed, — that  the  testimony 
of  God  should  be  accepted  as  undoubted  truth.  God 
speaking  in  his  Word  is  worthy  of  the  same  implicit 
deference  as  when  he  speaks  in  his  works.  We  claim, 
too,  for  this  science  what  is  accorded  to  all  others, — 
that  it  shall  be  suffered  to  base  itself  upon  its  proper 
evidence.  The  Scriptures  cover  ground  respecting 
which  we  have  no  other  means  of  information.  God 
has  made  in  them  no  superfluous  revelation.  That  is 
not  bestowed  upon  man  by  immediate  gift  from  heaven 
which  his  own  exertions  can  procure  for  himself.     The 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  45 

arts  of  civilized  life  can  be  taught  him  sufficiently  by 
the  necessities  of  his  condition.  Natural  science  lies 
in  a  region  which  his  own  faculties  are  competent  to 
investigate.  But  God,  and  spiritual  things,  and  the 
divine  scheme  of  a  sinner's  salvation,  and  the  method 
by  which  it  may  be  made  available  to  us  as  indivi- 
duals, are  subjects  respecting  which  God  alone  can 
inform  us.  Untaught  by  him,  we  must  remain  igno- 
rant; and  ignorance  here  involves  perdition.  The 
Bible,  therefore,  must  be  made  the  basis  of  our  reli- 
gious knowledge,  for  the  simple  reason  that  in  all  the 
great,  leading,  essential  points,  it  is  its  exclusive  source. 
"We  admit  that  there  is  a  border  line  between  reason 
and  revelation,  and  that  there  are  points  of  contact 
which  are  covered  by  both.  Here  we  shall  listen  to 
both,  and  expect  their  utterances  to  be  consistent. 
But  we  shall  not  discard  the  Word  of  God  in  favour 
of  some  alleged  testimony  from  his  works.  We  shall 
not  for  the  first  fancied  inconsistency,  in  the  veriest 
trifle  it  may  be,  give  up  our  faith  in  it  as  unreliable 
and  untrue.  But  while  we  hearken  to  Nature's  voice 
wherever  she  has  any  claim  to  be  heard  or  has  any- 
thing to  utter,  we  yet,  throughout,  base  our  faith  ulti- 
mately and  solely  upon  the  Scriptures.  We  know 
nothing  superior  to  them  in  authority,  nothing  co-ordi- 
nate with  them.  While  we  yield  the  domain  of  nature 
to  the  student  of  physical  and  intellectual  science,  the 
word  of  God  is  to  us  the  great  storehouse  of  know- 


46  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

ledge ;  our  aim  is  simply  to  educe  its  teachings ;  our 
primary  question  is,  What  saith  the  Scripture  ?  And 
to  insist  upon  our  discarding  it,  or  exalting  anything 
above  it  in  this  its  proper  sphere,  would  be  like 
requiring  the  chemist  to  leave  his  laboratory,  destroy 
his  apparatus,  and  discontinue  his  experiments,  and  to 
pursue  his  investigations  with  the  aid  only  of  the 
telescope  of  the  astronomer. 

It  is  the  grand  aim  of  the  ministry,  as  the  religious 
teachers  of  the  world,  to  diffuse  abroad  the  truths  of 
the  Bible ;  the  Bible,  as  the  only  source  of  saving 
knowledge,  the  only  guide  to  the  favour  of  God,  and 
holiness  and  heaven ;  which  alone  speaks  of  atonement 
by  the  blood  of  the  cross,  and  whose  faithful  proclama- 
tion is  accompanied  by  the  renewing  energy  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  is  their  sacred  office  to  expound  its 
heavenly  teachings  to  the  understanding;  to  give 
them  a  lodgment  in  the  heart  and  a  hold  upon  the 
conscience ;  to  persuade  men  to  embrace  them  and  be 
saved. 

The  Holy  Scriptures  form,  therefore,  deservedly 
the  chief  object  of  study  in  a  theological  course ;  and 
to  promote  a  thorough  and  exact  acquaintance  with 
their  contents  as  seen  from  all  sides,  and  to  qualify 
for  their  exposition  and  defence,  is  the  aim,  not  of  one 
of  its  departments  merely,  but  of  all.  Of  the  various 
aspects  under  which  we  may  view  the  Scriptures,  and 
the  various  methods  in  which  their  study  may  be  pro- 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  47 

fitably  pursued,  it  is  not  our  purpose  now  to  speak. 
We  ask  your  attention  but  to  the  peculiar  advantages 
of  one  particular  method,  which  may  be  called  the 
direct,  consecutive,  or  exegetical  study  of  the  inspired 
volume.  By  this,  as  distinguished  from  a  systematic 
or  topical  method,  we  mean  that  which  takes  up  the 
Scriptures,  or  any  individual  portion  of  them,  in  regular 
course,  developing  the  meaning  chapter  by  chapter 
and  verse  by  verse. 

The  first  consideration  in  favour  of  this  method  is, 
that  it  places  before  us  the  lively  oracles  in  the  precise 
form  given  to  them  by  the  inspired  writers.  If  it 
were  from  no  other  motive  than  a  laudable  curiosity, 
we  would  wish  to  acquaint  ourselves  familiarly  with 
the  precise  form  in  which  a  revelation  so  important 
was  first  communicated  to  the  world ;  and  if  it  had  no 
advantage  but  this,  it  would  still  possess  both  interest 
and  importance  as  a  branch  of  historical  inquiry.  If, 
again,  the  form  of  Scripture  were  wholly  a  human 
one,  and  no  divine  superintendence  or  direction  had 
been  exerted  over  it  to  make  it  what  it  is,  we  would 
still  esteem  it  of  importance;  for  we  would  expect 
that  the  sacred  penmen  had  presented  these  heavenly 
truths  in  such  a  shape  and  such  combinations  as  most 
impressed  themselves,  or  seemed  to  them  best  adapted 
to  promote  the  end  of  their  communication.  But 
when  we  call  to  mind  that  Scripture  was  neither  acci- 
dental in  its  form,  nor  merely  human,  but,  like  the 


48  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

temple  of  old,  wrought  after  a  celestial  pattern,  and, 
even  in  its  minutest  parts,  accurately  designed  from 
above  in  number,  weight,  and  measure,  this  is  suffi- 
cient to  teach  us  that  there  are  good  reasons  for  its 
being  as  it  is,  rather  than  otherwise.  If  the  form  of 
Scripture,  no  less  than  its  substance,  is  from  God,  then, 
however  superior  in  intrinsic  value  the  latter  may  be, 
no  one  will  say  that  the  former  ought  to  be  over- 
looked. 

The  contents  of  Scripture  are  not  there  exhibited 
according  to  any  systematic  arrangement.  Neither 
here  nor  in  Nature  are  things  drawn  out  in  regular 
order,  squared  to  a  rule,  or  labelled  by  genera  and 
classes.  Nature  exhibits  to  us  neither  a  botanist's 
herbarium  nor  a  mineralogical  cabinet.  But  it  pre- 
sents its  objects  in  that  mingled  yet  artless  diversity 
which  is  the  charm  of  its  landscapes,  and  adds  to  the 
impressive  grandeur  of  its  scenery.  Its  very  seeming 
confusion  produces  an  exquisiteness  of  effect,  which 
the  artificial  dispositions  of  science  could  never  accom- 
plish. We  want  Nature  just  as  it  is,  and  we  want 
the  Bible  just  as  it  is.  There  are  advantages  in  classi- 
fication, and  method,  and  scientific  distribution;  and 
these  may  be  employed  with  profit  in  the  study  of  the 
Bible  as  of  other  things.  But  let  not  the  importance 
which  really  attaches  to  its  inspired  form  be  over- 
looked. If  the  Book  of  God  was  to  accomplish  its  end, 
it  must  not  only  contain  the  truth  which  was  needed 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  49 

to  be  known,  but  it  must  present  it  in  such  shapes 
and  combinations  as  would  fit  it  to  attract,  instruct, 
and  impress,  and  that  not  one  class  of  men,  nor  one 
generation  of  men,  but  the  race.  Who  does  not  feel 
how  it  would  be  stripped  of  its  magic  power  over  the 
popular  mind  and  heart,  if,  instead  of  being  what  it  is, 
it  were  a  book  of  dry,  didactic  formulas,  methodically 
arranged  ?  if,  instead  of  its  living  forms  of  flesh  and 
blood,  it  gave  us  only  abstract  generalizations  ?  The 
precise  adaptation  of  the  truths  of  Scripture  to  man's 
nature  and  necessities  furnishes  a  strong  argument  for 
the  divinity  of  its  origin  ;  and  in  this  argument  a  point 
of  no  small  force  may  be  supplied  by  the  adaptation 
visible  in  the  very  form  in  which  these  truths  are 
presented.  Instead  of  admitting  it  as  an  argument 
against  the  completeness  of  Scripture  that  there  is  in 
it  no  appearance  of  systematic  arrangement,  and  that 
it  looks  so  like  an  aggregation  of  parts  which  owed 
their  origin  and  their  shape  to  occasional  influences, 
we  point  rather  to  the  fact  that  this  lack  of  system, 
joined  with  inexhaustible  fulness,  and  even  a  lavish 
profusion,  is  a  general  feature  of  God's  works;  and 
that,  instead  of  detracting  from  the  worth  of  the  Bible, 
it  was  really  a  necessary  element  in  its  fitness  for  its 
grand  design.  If  there  is  this  value  attaching  to  the 
form  of  Scripture,  it  is  no  small  recommendation  to 
any  method  of  study  that  it  preserves  it  intact. 

It  is,  moreover,  characteristic  of  the  word  of  God 


50  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

not  to  convey  its  teachings  after  one  determinate 
method,  but  to  be  continually  varying  its  exhibitions 
of  the  same  truth.  To  draw  out  its  teachings  into  a 
system  in  which  each  truth  shall  have  assigned  to  it 
its  precise  position,  and  stand  in  its  definite  relation  to 
each  of  the  others,  and  to  study  it  only  thus,  would 
be  to  lose  the  benefit  of  this  boundless  variety.  Let 
us,  in  illustration  of  this,  direct  our  attention  to  some 
of  the  diversities  of  the  inspired  volume. 

1.  The  diversity  in  the  character  of  the  composition. 
There  is  the  parable,  the  proverb,  the  psalm,  the 
various  styles  of  poetry,  prophecy,  history,  the  epistle, 
and  we  may  add,  the  symbolic  representation.  The 
same  truth  comes  to  us  in  every  different  dress  to 
adapt  it  to  varying  tastes,  or  to  enable  it  to  act  upon 
different  minds  or  in  different  ways  upon  the  same 
mind.  Each  has  its  respective  merit  of  simplicity,  or 
vividness,  or  pointed  brevity,  of  quiet  beauty,  lofty 
grandeur,  impassioned  feeling,  or  resistless  argument. 
Who  would  reduce  all  this  to  the  dead  level  of  a  rigid 
uniformity  ?  Who  would  go  through  its  rich  imagery, 
its  eloquent  appeals,  its  truthful  exhibitions  of  life  and 
character,  extracting  merely  the  truth  which  lies  at 
the  bottom,  and  which  is  thus  variously  illustrated 
and  enforced,  starching  it  into  the  uniformities  of 
didactic  statement,  presxsing  it  into  the  mould  of  a 
system,  and  then  hold  it  up  as  the  equivalent  of  its 
inspired  original,  and  think  that  it  has  lost  nothing  by 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  51 

the  process  ?  Who  would  deal  thus  with  even  the  classic 
volumes  of  profane  literature,  substituting  a  digest  of 
Milton  for  his  immortal  poem,  or  accepting,  instead 
of  the  masterpieces  of  oratorical  power,  a  logical  sum- 
mary of  their  contents  ?  The  truth  may  be  preserved 
and  given  to  us  in  well-balanced  statements.  The 
intellectual  conception  of  it  in  all  its  parts  and  har- 
monies and  relations  may  be  aided ;  but  we  lack  the 
glow  of  thought,  the  ardent  feeling,  the  forceful  illus- 
tration. What  didactic  statement  could  supply  the 
place  of  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  ?  Or  what 
moral  drawn  from  the  book  of  Job  would  answer 
instead  of  its  sublime  descriptions  and  its  touching 
argument?  What  summary  of  abstract  principles 
embodied  in  the  lives  of  holy  men  of  Scripture  would 
make  us  willing  to  dispense  with  what  we  read  of 
Abraham,  and  David,  and  Daniel,  and  Paul?  Or 
what  formulas  of  doctrine  could  lift  us  to  the  concep- 
tion of  a  character  such  as  that  of  the  blessed  Re- 
deemer, or  could  take  its  place  in  the  effect  upon  the 
heart?  Could  any  systematic  presentation  of  the 
truths  relating  to  the  person,  character,  and  work  of 
Jesus  equal  the  simple  recital  of  what  he  did  and 
said? 

2.  The  diversities  of  aspect  under  which  the  truth 
is  presented.  When  viewed  in  a  system,  each  truth 
has  its  definite  position  and  its  relation  to  other  parts 
of  the  system,  which  it  preserves  unchanged.     But 


52  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

when  it  is  taken  out  of  this  artificial  structure,  in 
which  for  convenience  in  viewing  it  in  its  totality  we 
have  placed  it,  and  is  regarded  in  other  than  its  logi- 
cal relations  in  the  abstract,  we  find  that  it  may  be 
presented  in  various  lights,  looked  upon  from  different 
sides,  and  set  in  a  variety  of  combinations.  Truth  in 
the  abstract  is  one,  but  in  its  applications  it  is  end- 
lessly diversified;  and  it  will  change  its  hue  with  the 
medium  through  which  it  is  examined.  The  same 
truth  may  be  so  exhibited  as  to  alarm,  to  console,  to 
instruct ;  it  may  be  presented  as  a  promise,  a  threat- 
ening, a  didactic  statement  to  the  understanding,  a 
solemn  appeal  to  the  heart.  It  may  come  in  the 
shape  of  a  precept,  or  an  example.  It  may  be  adapted 
to  the  believer,  or  to  the  unbeliever,  and  that  in  the 
various  conditions  or  states  of  feeling  in  which  either 
may  be.  It  appears  in  one  light  in  the  reproof  ad- 
ministered to  the  Pharisee,  and  in  another  in  the  re- 
buke of  his  rival  the  Sadducee.  It  is  brought  out  in 
its  different  shades  by  conflict  with  the  errors  of 
Judaism  on  the  one  hand,  and  Paganism  and  false 
philosophy  on  the  other.  It  is  seen  in  the  course  of 
the  inspired  volume  in  contact  with  the  shifting  cir- 
cumstances of  individuals,  with  changing  states  of 
society,  and  fluctuations  in  opinion,  through  a  space  of 
fifteen  hundred  years.  Now,  although  it  is  the  same 
truth  which  is  thus  variously  exhibited,  and  a  general 
mode  of  statement  might  be  adopted  which  would 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  53 

include  under  it  all  these  particulars,  yet  what  a  dif- 
ference would  be  made  in  its  impressiveness  and 
power !  There  are  in  the  law  the  direct  utterances  of 
the  divine  will;  and  then  in  the  Psalms  we  have  the 
answering  echo  from  the  human  heart.  Do  we  feel 
that  we  could  dispense  with  either  the  law  or  the 
Psalms,  though  the  lessons  of  each  are  the  same,  only 
exhibited  in  different  forms?  Or,  because  the  ten 
commands  contain  a  summary  of  human  duty,  do  they 
render  every  other  scriptural  injunction,  or  prophetic 
argument,  or  apostolic  exhortation  superfluous  ? 

3.  The  diversities  arising  from  the  characteristics  of 
individual  writers.  The  Spirit  of  truth  evinced  infi- 
nite wisdom  in  selecting  as  his  organs  men  of  such 
various  capacities  and  modes  of  thought,  trained  in 
different  ways  and  under  different  circumstances,  and 
adapted  to  play  different  parts  in  whatsoever  they 
were  called  to  engage.  When  they  were  inspired,  this 
did  not  efface  their  peculiarities  and  reduce  all  to  one 
level,  and  make  Isaiah  speak  or  think  like  Daniel, 
Ezekiel  like  Moses,  Paul  like  John,  a  James  like 
Peter.  They  were  still  in  individual  peculiarities 
what  they  had  been  before.  We  can  trace  the  men 
in  their  writings  when  they  were  under  the  guidance 
of  God's  Spirit,  just  as  plainly  as  though  they  were 
not.  Moses  was  designed  to  be  the  legislator  of  the 
Hebrews;  and  he  was  first  instructed  in  all  the  wis- 
dom of  the  Egyptians.     Saul  of  Tarsus  was  to  preach 


54  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

a  righteousness  not  of  the  law,  and  that  he  might 
know  thoroughly  the  system  which  he  was  to  expose, 
he  was  brought  up  after  the  straitest  sect,  a  Pharisee, 
and  sent  to  sit  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel.  The  penmen 
of  the  Bible  were  first  trained  in  God's  providence  to 
do  a  particular  work  in  his  kingdom,  and  they  were 
then  called  to  do  it.  They  were  so  inspired  as  to 
record  the  truth  and  that  only.  But  they  exhibit  it 
in  just  such  different  ways  as  the  pure  truth  unadul- 
terated by  error  would  present  itself  to  men  of  their 
various  minds,  habits,  and  tastes.  This  does  not 
detract  from  the  perfection  of  Scripture,  but  really 
renders  the  volume  more  complete,  and  adapts  it 
better  to  the  wants  of  men  of  every  class.  Their 
writings,  tinged  each  by  the  peculiarities  of  its  author, 
complete  each  other,  as  the  various  prismatic  colours 
blend  to  form  one  pure  white  ray.  They  are  like 
sketches  of  the  same  landscape  taken  from  different 
points,  the  same  objects  in  a  new  grouping,  conveying 
a  more  adequate  idea  when  looked  at  together  than 
either  could  alone.  We  have,  for  example,  four  paral- 
lel narrations  of  the  life  of  Christ.  Who  would  be  con- 
tent to  have  one  gospel  of  the  four  and  part  with  the 
rest,  even  if  it  contained  all  the  facts  ?  Or  who  would 
take  an  artificial  combination  of  the  whole,  a  so-called 
harmony,  and  substitute  it  to  the  exclusion  of  the  four 
in  their  present  shape  ?  Each  one  is  adapted  to  make 
an  impression  of  its  own,  is  designed  especially  for  a 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  o-J 

particular  class  of  readers,  seizes  the  character  of 
Christ  upon  a  different  side.  And  thus  the  impossi- 
bility of  such  a  character  as  his  being  adequately  con- 
ceived by  any  one  man,  or  draughted  in  any  one 
representation,  is  countervailed  in  a  measure  by  allow- 
ing it  to  impress  itself  on  different  men,  and  letting 
them  bring  out  each  the  precise  impression  it  made 
upon  themselves. 

And  yet,  mistaking  this  design  of  the  duplicate  and 
the  quadruplicate  portions  of  Scripture,  their  existence 
has  been  made  an  occasion  of  cavil.  And  when,  for 
instance,  the  same  Psalm  has  been  found  repeated  as 
used  on  different  occasions,  the  variations,  instead  of 
being  admitted  to  be  original  and  designed,  are  con- 
verted into  a  pretext  for  carping  at  the  accuracy  of 
the  text,  as  flagrant  proofs  of  negligent  transcription. 
The  varying  accounts  of  Kings  and  Chronicles  have 
been  wrested  as  though  they  were  discrepancies,  and 
invalidated,  instead  of  completing  and  supporting  each 
other.  Minute  and  laborious  examination  has  been 
expended  in  searching  out  pretended  errors  and  grounds 
of  complaint.  But  when  a  similar  examination  can- 
didly pursued  reveals  as  its  result  a  separate  principle 
which  guided  in  the  choice  and  the  rejection  of  mate- 
rials for  either  book,  and  shows  each  to  be  what  it  is 
and  to  contain  what  it  does  in  order  that  it  might  be 
a  unit,  and  might  answer  that  particular  end  for  which 
it  was  designed,  then  we  see  here  again  harmony  in 


56  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

the  midst  of  diversity,  not  only  preserved,  but  height- 
ened by  it  to  completeness.  The  attempt  has  been 
made  to  show  from  the  inner  constitution  of  the 
gospels  and  their  relation  to  each  other,  that  they  are 
spurious  and  their  accounts  wholly  fictitious,  or  highly 
coloured  and  unreliable.  True,  the  external  evidence 
in  favour  of  these  gospels  is  not  so  easy  to  be  set  aside 
by  the  plausibilities  of  ingenious  but  baseless  hypo- 
theses. But  even  if  that  were  less  convincing  than  it 
is,  a  more  narrow  scrutiny  of  those  very  features  which 
have  been  made  grounds  of  objection,  is  able  to  de- 
velop from  them  irrefragable  evidence  of  truth  and 
genuineness. 

4.  The  diversities  arising  from  the  gradual  commu- 
nication of  divine  truth.  The  revelation  of  God  was, 
after  the  analogy  of  most  of  his  works,  progressive ; 
and  that  not  only  in  its  spread  over  the  world,  and  in 
the  effect  that  it  produces  on  the  individual  soul 
which  savingly  embraces  it,  but  in  the  fulness  and 
clearness  of  its  announcements.  It  was  first  the  blade, 
then  the  ear,  after  that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  It 
was  at  first  the  dawning  light,  then  shone  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day.  The  people  of  God  were, 
as  the  Apostle  teaches,  placed  under  pupilage,  to  be 
trained  up  unto  the  coming  of  Christ.  The  education 
of  the  race  in  divine  things  was  conducted  upon  a  plan 
similar  to  that  observed  in  the  education  of  an  indivi- 
dual from  infancy  to  manhood.     The  elements  were 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  57 

taught  before  the  maturer  lessons.  It  does  not  fall 
within  our  present  purpose  to  discuss  the  reasons  why 
such  a  method  of  revelation  was  adopted,  nor  to  show 
the  ends  which  were  answered  by  it.  It  is  enough 
that  He  who  does  all  things  in  the  best  method  and 
at  the  proper  time  must  have  had  adequate  reasons 
for  it.  Now,  if  we  throw  all  these  communications  of 
the  Divine  will  and  purposes  into  one  general  mass, 
instead  of  studying  each  separately  in  its  order  and 
considering  the  time  of  its  unfolding  and  the  place  it 
holds  in  the  gradual  advance,  we  shall  fail  entirely  to 
perceive  the  scheme  that  was  observed  in  the  revela- 
tion. We  shall  discern  nothing  of  its  wise  orderings 
and  of  the  fitness  of  its  arrangements,  which  were  such 
that  nothing  superfluous,  nothing  unseasonable,  was  at 
any  time  brought  forward,  but  ever  that  which  pre- 
cisely met  the  necessities  of  each  particular  period, 
and  was  best  adapted  to  pave  the  way  for  the  ultimate 
supply  of  the  necessities  of  the  world.  We  shall  close 
our  eyes,  too,  upon  much  and  striking  evidence  of  the 
divine  origin  of  the  Scriptures  which  is  thus  furnished. 
When  we  see  the  communications  of  men  in  widely- 
different  ages  not  only  perfectly  harmonizing  with  each 
other,  not  only  marked  every  time  by  that  precise 
adaptation,  of  which  we  have  just  spoken,  to  the  con- 
dition and  wants  of  God's  people  in  each  successive 
period,  but,  in  addition,  making  steady  advances  to  an 
end  which,  though  manifestly  beyond  the  reach  of 


58  IXAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

human  foresight,  was  yet  as  manifestly  in  contempla- 
tion from  the  outset,  then,  in  the  very  construction  of 
the  Bible  itself,  and  the  relation  of  its  several  parts, 
we  have  the  evidence  that  He  is  its  author  who  knows 
the  end  from  the  beginning.  We  may  take  either  the 
doctrines  or  the  facts  of  the  New  Testament,  and  then 
turn  to  the  pages  of  the  Old,  and  we  shall  find  reach- 
ing far  back,  ages  before  the  perfect  disclosure,  hints 
of  what  was  to  come,  or  dim  and  shadowy  outlines,  or 
institutions  evidently  prefigurative,  or  lines  tending 
toward  it,  or  partial  and  for  that  reason  oftentimes 
seemingly  conflicting  announcements,  which  can  all  be 
gathered  up  and  harmonized  in  nothing  else  but  that 
which  we  first  learn  completely  when  the  mystery  of 
God  is  finished  and  the  fulness  of  time  has  come. 
And  it  is  impossible  to  escape  the  conviction  that  He 
who  gave  these  first  obscure  hints  and  partial  intima- 
tions, had  in  view  from  the  very  beginning  the  full 
doctrine  which  should  afterwards  be  revealed,  and  the 
great  facts  of  redemption  as  they  should  ultimately  be 
wrought  out. 

Besides,  these  elementary  lessons  still  have  their 
value ;  and  they  should  still  be  consulted  as  they  were 
originally  given.  The  Church  has  not  yet  outgrown 
them,  and  it  never  will.  But  as  the  man  of  mature 
years  may  have  his  conceptions  cleared  by  resorting 
again  to  the  brief  but  well-constructed  text-book  of  his 
childhood,  so  the  Church,  in  all  after  ages,  may  turn 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  59 

back  with  profit  to  the  very  earliest  instructions  she 
received  from  her  heavenly  Teacher. 

The  neglect  of  this  advance  in  Scripture  revelation 
may  also  be  attended  with  positive  injustice  to  the 
truth,  if  our  ideas  of  doctrine  and  our  proof-texts  are 
drawn  indiscriminately  from  all  parts  of  the  sacred 
volume,  and  we  place  side  by  side,  as  of  equal  value, 
the  partial  with  the  complete,  and  even  that  which 
was  to  be  done  away  with  that  which  has  since  taken 
its  place.  Or  it  may  lead  to  an  improper  dealing 
with  the  word  of  God ;  to  putting  a  force  upon  its 
expressions  in  order  to  extort  from  them  a  meaning 
which,  though  true  in  itself,  and  contained  in  its  after 
revelations,  would  not  be  in  its  place  there ; — such  as 
the  vain  attempts  to  find  the  deity  of  the  Messiah,  or 
a  full  exposition  of  justifying  faith,  among  the  first 
things  in  the  Bible.  This  can  only  have  the  effect  of 
encouraging  a  perversion  of  Scripture  from  its  just 
import  on  the  one  hand,  or,  on  the  other,  of  weaken- 
ing to  thinking  minds,  instead  of  supporting,  truths 
which  are  really  contained  in  the  Bible,  though,  for 
sufficient  reasons,  they  were  not  unfolded  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  divine  revelation. 

These  various  diversities  to  which  we  have  referred 
(and  it  is  needless  to  prolong  the  enumeration),  have 
their  value  and  importance  in  the  constitution  of  the 
book  of  God  ;  and  they  furnish  a  very  powerful  reason 
why,   among   our   various   methods  of  studying   the 


60  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

sacred  volume,  we  should  have  one  which,  neither 
fusing  all  these  into  a  uniform  mass,  nor  exalting  any 
one  into  an  unnatural  prominence,  shall  inspect  them 
all  just  in  that  order  and  measure  in  which  they  lie 
spread  before  us  in  the  Scriptures  themselves. 

Allow  me  to  urge  again,  in  favour  of  the  consecutive 
exegetical  study  of  the  Bible,  its  tendency  to  promote 
an  unbiassed  and  correct  interpretation.  The  sen- 
timents of  an  author  cannot  of  course  be  gathered  so 
readily  or  so  well  from  disjointed  sentences  brought 
together  because  of  their  real  or  supposed  bearing  on 
the  same  subject,  as  from  a  careful  perusal  of  his 
writing,  weighing  each  paragraph  as  it  stands,  and 
forming  a  judgment  from  the  combined  impression  of 
the  whole.  Each  sentence  is  modified  in  meaning  by 
the  context  in  which  it  is  found,  by  the  position  it 
holds  in  the  argument,  by  the  general  drift  of  the 
discourse,  in  fine,  by  a  hundred  things  which  can  only 
be  appreciated  by  him  who  comes  regularly  upon  it 
in  its  connexion.  An  entire  book,  too,  will  of  course 
be  better  understood  by  being  studied  thus.  The 
circumstances  of  its  origin,  the  design  of  its  compo- 
sition, the  state  of  opinion  among  those  to  whom  it 
was  addressed,  the  errors,  it  may  be,  which  it  aimed  to 
controvert,  individual  peculiarities  in  the  use  of  words 
or  turns  of  expression,  can  all  then  be  taken  into  the 
account,  and  allowed  their  proper  weight  in  determin- 
ing the  meaning. 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  61 

In  this  way,  also,  we  can  best  meet  the  difficulties 
and  objections  which  have  been  raised  respecting 
various  parts  of  Scripture.  They  are  far  less  formi- 
dable when  we  come  upon  them  in  detail ;  and  the  very 
fact  of  viewing  them  thus  often  supplies  all  the  answer 
they  require.  It  is  an  artifice  of  the  opposers  of  the 
Bible  to  produce  a  false  glare  by  culling  these  out,  and 
putting  them  all  together,  so  as  to  create  the  impres- 
sion of  an  appalling  array.  And  even  when  they  are 
brought  together  for  the  sake  of  answering  them,  it 
lends  them  a  factitious  importance,  creates  an  undue 
sense  of  their  number  and  magnitude,  and  gives  an 
appearance  of  strength  to  many  a  point,  which,  con- 
sidered alone,  would  be  seen  to  be  perfectly  trivial. 

It  is  an  important  advantage,  likewise,  that  we  thus 
study  the  Scriptures  independently  and  in  themselves, 
and  not  simply  as  they  bear  upon  a  given  creed,  which 
we  are  labouring  to  establish.  If  we  go  through  the 
Bible  simply  for  materials  to  build  up  a  certain  system, 
however  true  that  system  may  be,  we  are  not  so  fa- 
vourably circumstanced  for  arriving  at  its  true  mean- 
ing, as  though  we  had  no  aim  beyond  that  of  simply 
unfolding  whatever  it  may  be  discovered  to  teach. 
Our  investigations  will  be  warped  by  the  one  idea 
which  we  are  pursuing,  and  we  will  be  tempted  to 
seek  dogmatic  senses  where  none  were  intended.  We 
are  aware  that  the  pretence  of  impartiality  has  been 
made  the  cover  of  great  abuse,  and  under  professions  of 


62  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

candour  and  freedom  from  prejudice,  the  inspired  word 
has  been  divested  of  its  real  sense,  and  made  to  teach 
everything  in  fact  but  what  it  does  teach.  We  do  not 
wish  our  exegete  to  be  without  a  settled  creed,  or  a 
knowledge  of  the  analogy  of  faith,  or  to  be  so  in  love 
with  novelties  of  interpretation  that  anything  being 
embraced  within  the  belief  of  past  ages  shall  be  with 
him  a  positive  reason  for  its  rejection.  Let  the  exami- 
nation of  the  Scriptures  be  conducted  on  right  prin- 
ciples ;  let  no  insidious  maxims  be  covertly  adopted. 
Insist  on  rigid  interpretation,  and  assume  them  to 
mean  precisely  what  they  say,  as  judged  of  by  the 
ordinary  laws  of  human  speech.  Then  let  their  con- 
tents be  developed  fairly  and  fully.  Let  them  speak 
their  own  language,  and  tremble  at  no  results  which 
may  be  disclosed.  If  any  article  of  faith  has  been 
customarily  bolstered  up  by  a  wrong  interpretation  of 
any  passage,  have  no  apprehension  as  to  the  result, 
though  you  let  the  unsound  prop  fall.  A  truly  scrip- 
tural creed  need  have  nothing  to  fear  from  bringing 
the  inspired  testimony  fairly  out ;  for  one  proof-passage 
that  is  lost  or  weakened  to  its  cause,  a  hundred  will 
be  summoned  around  it  entirely  new,  or  will  be  found 
to  possess  unlooked-for  strength  and  pertinence.  And 
if  a  creed  be  not  truly  scriptural,  the  sooner  the  rotten- 
ness of  its  foundation  is  exposed,  the  better.  We  wish 
nothing  to  remain  among  our  tenets  which  the  word  of 
God,  honestly  expounded,  will  not  sanction.     With  an 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  63 

increased  attention  paid  to  the  direct  study  of  the 
Bible,  we  may  expect  that  the  creeds  of  Christendom 
will  be  more  closely  assimilated  to  it,  and  of  course  to 
each  other;  the  importance  of  tenets  will  be  more 
exactly  graduated  by  that  assigned  to  them  in  the 
word  of  truth  ;  false  and  erroneous  modes  of  statement 
will  be  discarded  for  the  scriptural  and  the  true.  And 
thus  we  may  hope  for  a  nearer  approximation  to  that 
unity  of  belief  which  some  dream  of  as  already  brought 
about. 

It  is  a  farther  recommendation  of  this  mode  of 
study,  that  by  it  the  whole  of  the  contents  of  the 
inspired  volume  are  most  likely  to  be  brought  out,  and 
all  in  their  due  proportion.  The  divine  sovereignty 
cannot  be  left  out  of  view,  nor  can  human  responsi- 
bility. He  who  goes  regularly  through  the  Bible  can- 
not avoid  finding  both.  If  he  be  disposed  to  place 
doctrine  above  practice,  or  to  despise  doctrine  and 
exalt  practice,  he  will  still  find  here  a  correction  of 
his  error.  That  which  he  might  have  overlooked,  or 
which  might  find  no  place  in  his  system,  will  yet 
inevitably  be  brought  before  him. 

The  faith  of  the  Church,  and  her  knowledge  of  what 
is  given  to  her  in  the  Scriptures,  have  never  been  sta- 
tionary, and  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  be  con- 
sidered more  so  now  than  at  any  former  period.  She 
has  received  in  the  inspired  volume  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  truth,  and  it  is  her  province  to  evolve  from  it 


64  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

whatever  is  adapted  to  her  wants  and  circumstances. 
Every  period  in  her  history,  every  controversy  she 
has  had  to  wage,  has  settled  more  definitely  points  of 
her  faith.  She  has  not  changed  her  creed,  but  more 
clearly  defined  it.  She  has  brought  out  with  more 
distinctness,  and  fixed  with  greater  precision,  the 
tenets  she  has  learned  from  the  Bible.  We  do  not 
know  that  the  multiform  shades  of  error  are  exhausted 
yet.  "We  do  not  know  what  points  of  the  truth,  now 
unthought  of  or  little  regarded,  may,  in  a  new  condi- 
tion of  the  Church,  or  a  new  turn  of  the  conflict  she 
is  waging,  be  lifted  into  unexpected  prominence.  We 
know  not  what  pieces  of  celestial  armour,  offensive 
and  defensive,  lie  yet  unused  in  this  great  magazine, 
nor  what  future  exigencies  may  arise  which  shall 
require  them.  If  all  Scripture  is  profitable,  we  must 
not  take  our  stand  barely  upon  the  faith  evolved  from 
it  by  the  early  fathers,  nor  must  we  make  a  dead 
halt  when  we  reach  the  faith  of  the  Reformation. 
Truth  is  one,  but  it  has  its  changing  relations  to  the 
changing  state  of  things.  At  one  time,  certain  fea- 
tures are  called  forth  into  bold  relief, — at  another, 
others.  The  exhibition  of  the  same  system  must  of 
course  be  varied  by  the  wants  of  the  age  and  the 
Church.  If  we  would  fulfil  our  duty  in  this  respect, 
and  neither  be  swung  off  from  the  true  foundation, 
nor  bring  in  a  load  of  human  fancies  and  traditions, 
we  must  resort  perpetually  to  the   Scriptures  as  the 


INAUGURAL     DISCOURSE.  65 

fountain-head  and  well-spring  of  truth.  We  wish  the 
Scriptures  searched,  that  all  the  divine  store  here 
made  over  to  us  may  be  drawn  forth  and  made  avail- 
able, and  that  none  of  its  choice  pieces  of  trusty  armour 
may  be  left  to  lie  rusting  near  us,  when  they  ought  to 
be  furbished  ready  for  use. 

It  is  an  additional  reason  for  thorough  exegetical 
study,  that  the  Bible  is  already  studied  thus  by  its 
adversaries ;  and  we  can  in  no  other  way  qualify  our- 
selves for  its  successful  defence.  This  is  an  age  of 
minute  searching  investigation.  Every  department 
of  knowledge  has  received  from  it  a  fresh  impetus. 
Thousands  of  eager  eyes  are  in  every  direction  prying 
into  the  mysteries  of  nature,  and  with  astonishing 
success.  History  is  put  to  the  proof,  and  forced  to 
divulge  her  secrets ;  and  even  from  the  hoary  monu- 
ments of  Egypt  and  of  Nineveh  the  rubbish  of  many 
centuries  has  been  cleared  away,  their  pictures  copied, 
and  their  strange  inscriptions  read.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  in  this  general  activity  of  mind,  this  craving  for 
new  results,  a  share  of  attention  should  be  directed  upon 
the  Bible,  possessing  the  attractions  that  it  does,  and 
of  such  a  varied  kind.  Philology,  History,  Antiqua- 
rian Research,  Beligious  Symbols  and  Architecture, 
Metaphysics,  Morals,  Philosophy,  and  even  Physical 
Science,  have  each  their  points  of  contact  with  it. 
And  from  all  these  different  directions,  as  well  as  from 
that  of  Christian  doctrine  and  Church  questions,  it  has 


66  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

been  approached  and  searched  with  microscopic  care, 
and  it  would  be  wonderful  if  there  were  no  useful 
result  from  all  this  labour.  The  enthusiasm  for  science 
that  has  impelled  the  search,  or  the  literary  zeal  ex- 
pended, has  too  frequently,  it  is  true,  forgotten  the 
sacredness  of  the  ground  it  was  treading,  and  been  no 
more  concerned  about  the  results  at  which  it  should 
arrive,  and  rated  no  higher  the  authority  of  the  vo- 
lume it  held,  than  if  Moses,  Isaiah,  or  John,  were  no 
more  than  Herodotus,  Homer,  or  Plato.  Sometimes 
there  has  been  carried  into  the  investigation  a  rage 
for  novelty,  which  found  its  delight  in  unsettling 
established  opinions,  and  smiled  at  the  greatness  of 
the  ruin  it  could  make.  Sometimes  there  has  been  a 
worse  spirit  still, — one  of  positive  hostility  to  this  holy 
book, — which  took  a  malignant  pleasure  in  raising 
doubts  respecting  its  genuineness  and  its  truth,  or  in 
venting  its  spleen  by  sneers  and  misrepresentations. 
Still,  whether  in  pretence  or  in  truth,  whether  from 
envy  and  strife,  or  from  good-will,  the  Bible  is 
searched;  and  we  therein  do  rejoice, — yea,  and  will 
rejoice.  If  it  has  not  always  been  with  a  proper 
spirit  of  reverential  inquiry,  if  it  has  been  sometimes 
with  a  spirit  most  opposite  to  a  love  of  Christian 
truth,  we  are  yet  glad  of  anything  which  has  been 
made  the  occasion  of  directing  so  many  acute  and 
learned  observers  upon  the  scrutiny  of  the  sacred 
volume,  and  which  lias  led  to  the  development  of  its 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  b< 

contents  under  so  many  and  such  widely-different 
points  of  view.  We  are  glad  if  devotion  to  science 
and  letters — we  may  even  say  that  we  are  thankful 
if  malignity  against  the  book  of  God  itself, — had  been 
made  in  his  good  providence  thus  to  contribute  to  our 
increased  knowledge  of  his  blessed  word.  Much  vain 
display  of  learning  there  has  been,  and  many  crazy 
theories  and  idle  fancies ;  but  with  all  the  rubbish, 
there  have  been  thrown  up  gems  and  lumps  of  pre- 
cious metal.  While  we  reject  the  worthless  and  the 
false,  it  is  our  wisdom  eagerly  to  treasure  up  the 
valuable  and.  the  true. 

More  is  demanded  of  the  theologian,  however,  than 
simply  that  he  should  stand  quietly  by,  and  avail 
himself  of  what  is  valuable  in  the  labours  of  others. 
To  lean  upon  foreign  researches,  especially  when  they 
have  been  conducted  upon  unsound  principles,  is 
neither  sufficient  nor  safe.  These  researches  have  led 
to  every  variety  of  result.  Many  things  have  been 
brought  out,  many  more  pretended,  which  seem  to 
have  a  doubtful  or  injurious  bearing  upon  the  cause 
of  religious  truth.  Learning  must  be  met  by  learning 
on  its  own  chosen  field.  The  friends  of  sound  doc- 
trine owe  it  to  themselves  and  to  the  goodness  of  their 
cause,  that  it  should  not  be  worsted  through  their 
inefficiency  or  neglect.  They  must  subject  the  Scrip- 
tures to  an  independent  investigation,  and  especially 
upon  those  points  where  they  have  been  impugned ; 


68  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

they  must  make  strong  their  defences,  and  show  how 
on  every  side  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints 
rests  on  a  firm  foundation,  and  is  surrounded  by  im- 
pregnable bulwarks.  There  are  questions  which  can- 
not be  evaded,  which  it  were  unmanly  to  attempt  to 
evade,  and  which  can  only  thus  be  put  to  rest.  If 
the  genuineness  of  parts  of  Holy  Writ  is  contested  on 
philological  grounds,  or  if  its  thorough  inspiration  is 
denied  on  internal  evidence,  it  is  well  if  we  can  rebut 
it  from  other  sources,  by  bringing  satisfactory  and  con- 
clusive proof  of  the  truth  that  is  impugned.  But  the 
objection  is  only  then  completely  demolished,  when 
the  question  in  philology  is  itself  inquired  into,  and 
the  alleged  internal  evidence  is  sifted,  and  it  is  shown 
that  even  there  the  argument  is  not  against  the  truth, 
but  for  the  truth. 

As  a  closing  consideration  upon  this  subject,  we 
would  have  you  look  at  the  position  which  exegetical 
study  occupies  with  respect  to  other  branches  of  minis- 
terial training,  and  to  the  active  duties  of  ministerial 
labour.  The  chief  design  of  theological  education  is, 
as  we  have  said  before,  to  train  up  men  who  shall  be 
mighty  in  the  Scriptures,  able  rightly  to  expound, 
defend,  and  enforce  them.  We  want  a  ministry  well 
versed  in  every  branch  of  Scriptural  knowledge.  For 
this,  exegetical  study  must  of  course  lay  the  ground- 
work. It  furnishes  the  materials  from  which  they 
are  to  draw  in  their  systematic  or  topical  study  of  the 


INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE.  69 

sacred  volume.  After  we  have  first  gone  through 
the  Bible,  and  ascertained  the  meaning  of  its  various 
parts,  we  are  then  prepared  to  reduce  what  we  have 
gained  to  one  comprehensive  system,  or  to  examine  it 
under  the  various  points  of  view,  in  which  it  may  be 
properly  and  profitably  presented.  Dogmatic  Theology, 
as  it  brings  the  creed  of  the  Church  to  the  test  of  the 
Bible ;  Systematic  Theology,  as  it  developes  its  creed 
out  of  the  Bible ;  Historic  Theology,  as  it  traces  the 
growth  of  the  Scripture  revelation,  or  the  subsequent 
unfolding  of  its  truths  to  the  consciousness  of  the 
Church  ;  Polemic  Theology,  as  it  deals  with  the  various 
errors  that  have  arisen  in  conflict  with  the  truth ; 
Pastoral  Theology,  as  it  dwells  upon  the  nature  and 
the  active  duties  of  the  ministerial  office  ; — all  pre- 
suppose for  their  successful  pursuit  a  sound  and 
thorough  exegesis  as  their  basis.  And  the  recent 
Assembly,  when  they  embodied  in  the  form  of  a  reso- 
lution the  long-established  practice  of  this  institution, 
rightly  judged  that  every  professor  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  ought  "  to  give  instruction  in  some  portion 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures." 

For  the  duties  of  the  sacred  desk  a  thorough  exege- 
tical  acquaintance  with  Scripture  is  a  most  invaluable 
aid.  It  will  prepare  the  minister  truly  to  teach  the 
people  knowledge,  instead  of  bringing  before  them 
superficial  and  desultory  harangues.  It  will  make 
his  preaching  biblical,  both  in  the  matter  of  his  dis- 


70  INAUGURAL    DISCOURSE. 

course,  and  the  manner  of  its  presentation.  It  will 
enable  him,  instead  of  merely  connecting  some  topic 
with  the  language  of  the  Scriptures,  to  develop  what 
they  truly  contain.  It  will  open  up  before  him  a 
boundless  variety  in  the  mode  of  handling,  illus- 
trating, and  enforcing  truth.  It  will  furnish  him,  in 
the  well-studied  volume  of  inspiration  itself,  a  model 
which  he  cannot  too  closely  follow,  in  adapting  the 
truth  to  tell  with  the  most  effect  upon  the  hearts  and 
consciences  of  his  hearers.  It  will  provide  him  the 
requisite  material  for  a  mode  of  preaching  which  has 
of  late  fallen  greatly  into  abuse,  but  which,  properly 
managed  and  lifted  above  the  merely  commonplace, 
has  such  obvious  advantages  that  its  revival  is  ear- 
nestly to  be  desired, — that  of  continuous  exposition. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Board  of  Directors  : 

You  may  readily  imagine  with  what  trembling  I 
assume  the  duties  of  the  new  position  to  which  the 
voice  of  the  Church  has  called  me  from  the  midst  of  a 
much-loved  congregation,  and  with  what  diffidence  I 
find  myself  placed  beside  these  fathers  in  age  and 
experience,  and  these  luminaries  in  learning  and  theo- 
logical science,  who  have  made  this  Seminary  what  it 
is  in  the  eyes  of  the  Church  and  of  the  world.  No- 
thing but  a  trust  in  your  kind  indulgence,  and  in  that 
which  I  have  already  so  largely  experienced  from 
these  venerated  instructors,  at  whose  feet  I  should 


INAUGURAL     DISCOURSE.  71 

esteem  it  a  rare  privilege  to  be  still  permitted  to  sit, 
would  ever  have  prevailed  upon  me  to  suffer  myself 
to  be  placed  where  I  stand  this  day.  It  is  my  comfort 
that  there  is  One  in  whom  weakness  itself  can  be 
made  strong,  and  who  can  use  the  feeblest  instrument 
for  spreading  abroad  his  glory. 


